


Iron Angel

by Lin_ifyouplease



Series: The Legion [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Next Avengers, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Asgard (Marvel), Avengers Family, Coming of Age, Domestic Avengers, F/M, Family Story, Feminist, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Marvel Universe, New York City, Next Generation, No Spoilers, Post-Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Pre-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-07
Updated: 2018-09-28
Packaged: 2019-06-06 12:41:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 23,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15195017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lin_ifyouplease/pseuds/Lin_ifyouplease
Summary: If you think you and your sibling have problems, try growing up with your lives linked to one another in order to survive.Maria Stark has never had a moment to herself ever since she was born. She is constantly under her father's protection, is scolded by her mother, and her life is literally linked to that of her older brother, which makes them feel everything the other feels. Maria is just about tired of telling her where to go, what to do, and to "ALWAYS stay hidden and safe at the sight of danger". So she spends most of her time in the basement lab, doing her father's handy work while listening to classic tunes with her best friend, Peter Parker.With her dad out there saving the world, her best friend keeping the streets safe, and her brother getting all the media attention, Maria's desire to get out of the lab is fueled by a not-so-stranger from another planet who is as mysterious as he is handsome. It'll take all of Maria's family and friends to remind her what being a hero is really all about before she falls under the spell of the enchanting Asgardian.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so the timeline is gonna be weird. I tried my best to vaguely explain it in the prologue, narrated by Tony, but I just wanted to put something here so it will be 100% clear.
> 
> Our heroine, Maria Stark, was 15 years old during the events of Captain America: Civil War. Her brother, Andy, was 18 years old. At the beginning of this story, three years have now passed and the events of Infinity War have not taken place (so don't worry about Infinity War spoilers just yet). Tony and Steve made amends a few months before this story (which will be discussed, don't you worry).

"This is the story of how I died... and I don't mean in the way where I'm breathing one moment and the next not, nor is this about a slow and painful death. No. I’ve died many times in my little more than half a lifetime on this Earth. Each time I die, I put it into categories. Is the death metaphor too confusing? I don’t know how else to explain that part of me died through various experience in order for me to emerge a completely new person, so there it is. It’s not as morbid and depressing if you understand what I mean. There are the horrible deaths; going up into space with a missile, having heart surgery in a cave in the Middle East, escaping death from my mentor, a demigod, a nerd, a titan, and one of my closest friends… but there have been some pretty good deaths; the first time I kissed Pepper Potts… the first Iron Man suit I ever made… the first time I ever tasted shawarma… the day I married Pepper, the love of my life… and then the birth of my first born son, when I finally held a little tiny thing in my arms that was completely and entirely mine just because.

That’s an entirely different story. A shorter story, but entirely different. 

I could just go on and on tell a story all about how, the day I left Siberia, I turned my back on someone who I thought was one of my best friends and how it took me a whole 3 years for me to even consider talking to him again, and even then, things were never the same. 

But that isn’t the story we’re telling today. 

This story, and every story from here on out, is about every single moment that I've died ever since I laid eyes on the greatest miracle I have ever seen. If you're thinking of a bouncing baby boy with black hair, green eyes and a brilliant beyond brilliant mind, then you would be incorrect. Sorry, he  _ is _ a good thing and every child a woman bears is a miracle, but that’s not exactly what I’m talking about. Did I just say this is a different story than that? Okay, wait… let me just start over…

This is the story of a miracle child who had a very small chance of living past her first day of life. It’s a story of hardship, expectations, emotional turmoil, battles, technical difficulties, and how one girl managed to send all of those things to hell all by herself. This is about the young woman you read about in teeny bopper magazines today, who will one day grace the covers of every magazine in production with headlines that will shatter glass ceilings. She is the one you call The Iron Angel, defender and vanquisher. 

But that’s not what I call her.

She's just my little princess.

Maria.”


	2. Her Name is Maria

Alexander Anthony Stark was born on a chill winter's night just after New Year's day. When Tony Stark first held his tiny baby boy in his arms, he really hoped the boy would grow to be taller than him some day, since there seemed to be little to no hope of anyone in the Stark family being taller than five feet and nine inches tall. He also hoped to name the boy Anthony Stark Jr., because why not? Pepper, the mother of the smiling boy, wanted to give him a prestigious, royal, yet timeless name. So the boy's name ended up being Alexander, with Anthony as his middle name to compromise. By the time he turned 1, he was already learning how to say his own name, only he was screaming "Andy", as in the last five letters of his name squeezed into a charming nickname. So Andy was the name Pepper and Tony found themselves screaming whenever temper tantrums ensued of things in the house broke because one eager beaver kept running around the house with the world in his eyes.

There was only way to stop this monster of a baby. When Andy found out he was going to have a little sister on his hands, it silenced him for good. He gave everyone the silent treatment up until the very moment his mother went into labour. Tony sat in the waiting room with his son, who was drawing, what looked like plans for a robot dog, in his coloring notebook.

"Watcha got there, sport?" Tony asked, looking over the three year old's shoulder.

"Doggie," Andy replied, "His name is Howard."

"Howard…”

Tony froze. He thought that when he told the kid stories about Grandpa Howard and Grandma Maria, the kid was just staring at him with glassy eyes. Everyone knew Andy was a smart kid, but the world was beginning to underestimate just how smart he really was.

The nurse came into the waiting room, telling Tony that the baby was coming. Tony picked up Andy in his arms and carried him, rushing towards the hospital room past the nurse.

"Where we going, daddy?" Andy asked.

"We're gonna meet your sister," Tony said excitedly to the toddler.

"Meet Maria?" Andy inquired.

"Maria?"

"Maria," Andy corrected, nodding with absolute certainty, "It’s her name. Like grandma."

Damn, this kid is pulling at all my heartstrings, Tony thought. He was too busy reading books about how to be a father to a little girl that he didn't even get to discuss naming the baby. Pepper said he would get to name her since she got her way with the boy. When Andy said "Maria", it almost felt too perfect, like the universe was finally doing something right to Tony Stark. The baby arrived into the world on October 1st at 8:42pm and while her brother stood there and cringed at the screaming child covered in blood, Tony only saw a little piece of heaven sent down to change the lives of all the imperfect lowly people of earth. She was all the joy in the world wrapped up into one tiny little package.

"Maria Virginia," Tony said as he watched the squirming baby in his wife's arms, "That's her name."

Pepper gasped, looking at her husband, "Your mom’s name... that's perfect."

"I can't actually take all the credit for once," Tony said, picking up a now giggling toddler in his arms, "It was all his idea."

For those 5 seconds, Pepper holding Maria with Tony and Andy watching over them, everything was perfect. But then she started to cry out a blood curdling scream. Pepper cooed at the baby, kissing her head and bouncing her. Tony tensed up, wondering how on earth he was going to survive if he broke that much seeing her upset. Andy reached out his little hand towards his little sister.

"Blue baby," Andy concluded.

"Oh really, Dr. Stark?" Tony asked, "What's your diagnosis? Gas? Diaper change? Empty stomach?"

Andy shook his head and immediately ran to the nearest nurse in the corner of the room. "Sister hurt!" he shouted, tugging at the nurse's scrubs. She quickly turned around looked at the skin of the baby, seeing the blue-ish tint her in her skin.

"What's wrong?" Pepper asked.

"We need to take her to Dr. Ingram immediately," the nurse said to the other attendants in the room.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Tony halted, "The heart specialist?"

"The baby is blue, Mr. Stark. We'll have to test her for heart defects."

"Heart defects!?" Pepper gasped.

Trying to hold on tightly to her baby, the nurse snatched the child away and rolled her out on a cart with a cradle on it, taking her out the door. Pepper squeezed Tony's hand and he didn't need to hear anything else.

"Andy, stay with mommy," he ordered, following the nurse out the door.

20 whole minutes had past, which felt like 20 years, while Maria was in ICU, a pacemaker attached to her tiny little body. Tony hated standing there on the other side of that window, watching strangers handle his precious bundle when he could do absolutely nothing. Dr. Ingram came out later and told Tony that her heart is having a hard time beating on its own and they would have to do a complex heart procedure to even have a chance of it working properly again. As quick as a bolt of lightning, Tony came up with another plan.

"What if I told you I could make a chip that could keep her heart beating?" Tony suggested.

"I'd say explain so I can dictate whether you're crazy or not," Dr. Ingram responded.

"It's like this," Tony explained, "Two chips, one for each heart. One chip is taking in senses from the heart and distributes it to the other chip on the other heart. So the heart is beating against one chip and the other chip is on the other heart, the other heart keeps beating."

"Linking two lives together?" Dr. Ingram contemplated, "Where on earth are we going to get a volunteer to do that? It could have immeasurable repercussions and side effects."

"Please," Tony begged, "Let me try, at least. Even if I have to wear it myself."

"It would have to be a stronger, younger heart for that kind of thing to even be possible, Mr. Stark."

That's when the worst idea he's ever had hit him. With every piece of equipment he could find just in the hospital, he was able to engineer two tiny chips. When he touched one, he felt it on the other one. A perfect creation and perhaps the only way his daughter could live. The stronger and younger heart, however, was going to take some convincing.

"Hey Andy..." Tony said, sitting his son in his lap in Pepper's hospital room.

"Maria’s ok?" Andy asked.

"Maybe," Tony nodded, "but... she's gonna need your help."

"My help?"

"Yes... you can say no if you want, kiddo. You're gonna wear this," he pulled out the tiny chip from his pocket, "on your heart."

Andy looked down at his chest and frowned.

"That's right," Tony validated, "Inside you. When the doctor puts that inside you, Maria will stop crying."

Andy looked blankly at his father for a second, then tilted his head slightly. "I can save Maria?"

Tony nodded, "Yes. Yes you can, kiddo."

Andy nodded back with a brave, yet slightly terrified expression on his tiny face. "Ok."

Scaring the hell out of Pepper, both of her children underwent surgery to place the little chips on both of their hearts. Andy went in first and he was awake within 2 hours after his surgery. The second the chip was placed onto Maria's heart, it started beating at a strong and steady pace all on it's own. Within the week, everyone was alright and perfectly healthy. It was Tony Stark's greatest invention yet; the one that saved his baby girl's life, and he didn't regret a single thing.

That is, until he started to discover the side effects.

"Welcome to the Stark Mansion," Tony greeted the 5th babysitter he'd hired to watch the kids while the parents were off at work, "There's a list of emergency numbers on the kitchen counter, nap time is at 2:00 sharp, and there is a personalized fridge in the kitchen filled with all of the food their mother has approved them to eat. Any questions?"

"Just one," the babysitter said, "You put on the ad that your children are special needs, is that correct?"

"Right," Tony nodded.

"Is there any sort of procedure I need to follow when it comes to playtime or putting them to sleep?" she asked.

"Sort of," Tony answered, "The boy is 7 and the girl is 4, which I understand is your specialty. They behave just as any other 4 and 7 year olds would, but I do highly suggest strongly enforcing things like sharing and cooperation and inside voices."

"Do they have problems managing their anger?" she inquired.

"Umm… yeah, let’s go with that," Tony shrugged, "See, these aren't your average brother/sister duo. They actually feel pretty much everything the other feels. So if one of them is happy, the other gets happy. If one of them is nervous, the other gets nervous. If one of them feels pain-."

"They both feel it?"

"Exactly."

"Interesting."

"So that means when one of them gets angry-."

From upstairs, a loud high pitched tiny girl's screech filled the echoey walls of the house. "Get your foot out of my face, butthead!"

Tony nodded, "The other is sure to follow."

"Get your face out of my foot, twerp!" the little boy's voice followed.

Hence why it's been difficult finding a babysitter who can tolerate them for more than 20 minutes. All of their lives, Maria and Andy have felt every single thing the other has felt. Once they got older, they started to realize what was actually going on. Hitting puberty and having everything be about image and embarrassment started to become a sick joke. As pre-teens, Andy thought pricking himself with a needle and watching Maria gasp in pain while she was flirting with a boy would be a joy to watch. Maria was the only girl in her class who was thrilled when she first started getting period cramps.

But growing older and older, they adapted, soon becoming numb to things like needle pricks, stubbed toes, paper cuts, or any sort of small injuries like that. Soon, emotions would get in check too. But the emotions were very much the same, in fact, it brought them closer and closer as siblings. For example, when Maria got dumped at the prom, Andy had a feeling something was wrong and drove there to pick her up to avoid further embarrassment. However, the anger thing still got in the way most of the time. And when they learned how to carry their emotions separately, feeling two different emotions at the same time got to be a little tricky.

"Andy!" An 18-year-old Maria called, following her brother to the front door of the house, "Andy! I know you can hear me!"

"I know!" Andy spat, "I am quite literally ATTACHED to you."

"Why can't I go out with our friends tonight?" Maria asked.

"Because," Andy said, "Maggie, Ivan, and Cooper are all 21 and you don't belong, little girl."

Maria scoffed, "I am NOT a little girl."

Andy stood up beside Maria, placing his hand on her head and swiping it back to his chest, indicating her tiny figure to his tall frame, ruining her hair in her ponytail in the process, "Little girl." 

Alas, Maria was born with the Stark curse. 

The redhead growled and crossed her arms, "Ugh! I hate you!"

"Good!" Andy spat back, slamming the door behind him and jumping into the new sports car he fixed up himself. Throwing on his sunglasses, he stepped on the pedal and speeded away out of the driveway.

With an angry huff, Maria stormed down into the garage. The computer system awoke when she pushed open the glass door. She pressed her hand against the I.D. scanner to turn on her own personal computer assistant.

"Good afternoon, Miss Stark."

"Angelo," Maria greeted through her teeth, plopping herself down on the stool in front of a table, "Pull up blueprints for the gauntlet. I wanna get some work done so I can stop feeling two things at once."

"Right away, miss," Angelo said, a hologram of blueprints appearing before Maria as she started to move different pieces around, playing with the shape and style of the gauntlet, "Incoming visitor, Miss Stark. It's your mother."

"Tell her I'm not in," Maria said, avoiding looking at the completely transparent glass vestibule. 

"You and your father both," Pepper said in an exasperated tone, fresh off of work in heels and business casual pantsuit. Only a few strands of her red hair had begun to fall out of the bun that was tied to the back of her head. She pushed the door open and marching into the lab, "Always with that same sorry attempt to get out of a confrontation."

"What am I being confronted about?" Maria asked, "Whatever it is, Andy did it."

"No," her mother chuckled, "I came to do your regular check-ups. How have you been feeling today?"

"Oh god not this question again," Maria groaned. She took off her large, black rimmed eyeglasses before throwing her head down on the metal table, "When other people get asked that question, it's a conversation starter, a way to show one’s concern for another. When I get asked, it's an actual serious medical health concern."

"I know it's frustrating," Pepper said, pulling up a stool next to her child.

"That's the thing, mom. It's not frustrating at all. I feel agitated, yeah, but overall? I feel chill. I feel like none of this pain even matters. Do you know why? Because Andy is out with friends right now having a great time. It's like I'm not even allowed to feel anger or sad whenever he's happy. For once I just want to feel my own emotions on my own." She began to fiddle with a hologram as it glitched. She let out a groan of frustration and then threw her face into her hands, her hands slightly shaking. 

Pepper always knew something like this was coming when having a teenage daughter, but not even her brilliant and prepared mind placed a hand on her daughter's back, rubbing it gently as she sat up to continue fiddling with the pieces of the holographic gauntlet. "You're more separate than you think," she said, "The fact that you're even able to feel upset right now is a lot of progress. Don't forget, he can feel everything you feel too. I'm sure he just wants to have a good time, but he's too upset to do so. Doesn't that say something about the bond you two have? Quite literally, your hearts beat as one. Maybe if you both tried sympathizing with each other instead of fighting it, you'd get along a lot better."

"I hate emotions," Maria concluded.

"Alright," Pepper said, standing up out of the chair, "Do me a favor, though?” Pepper’s daughter paused slightly to look up at her mother, reluctantly, “Get out of this room tonight. Why don’t you call Peter?”

Maria simply ignored her mother’s comment, assembling a holographic part to add to the gauntlet. She didn’t want to see him right now. She wanted to tinker and think and prove that she could do something better than Andy that isn’t just making pets out of auto parts.

Pepper grinned gingerly, unbeknownst to her daughter who had begun tinkering once again. She gently bent her head down to kiss her daughter’s brilliantly ginger hair, and then gently brushed back the flyaways on the top of her head that couldn’t be pinned down by her ponytail. “I just don’t want you to lock yourself in here to escape your problems."

The sound of the I.D. scanner was heard behind them as Tony walked in, unbeknownst to the two women just ahead of him. "Friday, it's time to escape my problems."

"Of course, sir," Friday answered.

"Let's start with Mark 73," he said, pressing a button that revealed his current stash of Iron Man suits. Pepper cleared her throat and he jumped, suddenly lightening up when he saw two heads full of red hair. "Hey! Maria's here. Great. How's that gauntlet coming along?"

"I'm trying to figure out where to place the repulsor generator in a place that won't disrupt the movement," Maria frowned, zooming in on her blueprint plans, "I want to be able to actually move my wrists."

"Of course you do, otherwise you'd just be blowing things up behind or below you and that's no fun at all," he said, getting his hands on her holograms.

Pepper shook her head. Like father like daughter, she thought. As she turned to leave, she caught herself on a lug nut, almost tripping over. When she caught herself, she bent down and picked it up, frowning as she looked around for that mangy mutt. A tiny little robot dog peeked its head from behind the leg of a table with a scared look on its face.

"Howard!" Pepper shouted in frustration as she kicked the lug nut away, "Will one of you please teach the robot dog to stop leaving his waste all over the floor?"

"Andy's dog," Tony answered.

"Andy's problem," Maria finished, both of them snickering to each other.


	3. Parental Advisory

Maria wasn't exactly why she still had hope that things would get better, but she walked out of the garage with a spring in her step that night. After an evening of mindless tinkering with blue lights while listening to her dad’s angsty classic rock playlist, her own personal thoughts, emotions, and worries started to fade away, which left much more room for Andy’s emotions. She could feel comfort, peace, excitement, and pure happiness, but it wasn’t like those emotions took over and made her jump towards the ceiling. It was like a sensation, like feeling his happiness calmed her to a neutral state. 

So she sat on the couch in the living room, reading a James Patterson novel to pass the time. The headlights of Andy’s car shone through the glass doors of the house upstate in New York, resting in between the Avenger’s compound and New York City, bringing light into the living room where Maria had a single lamp lit.

Andy pushed the door open, but didn’t turn on any lights. He just threw his black leather jacket to the side, a blank look on his face. Maria slowly placed her book back down on the couch beside her. Why have a full-blown conversation when they both understood each other exactly? She sprang up from the couch as he marched towards her and they hugged each other tightly, each of them taking a big deep breath. Maria often said that every time she hugged her brother, her ear was pressed up against his chest, so she could feel her own heartbeat and hear his beating at the exact same time. It was one of the most important things the Stark siblings could do together. Two kids, born into a family that was destined to be compared and judged and ridiculed for mistakes that date back far before them. All they would truly have in the end was each other and they’ve known that since the moment they were old enough to understand it. That hug was always a reminder of that in case they ever needed it. They sat beside each other in the living room all night, the gas fireplace turned on to offer some more light. They had something to take care of; figuring out how to use their emotions against a common enemy instead of against each other.

Maria did fall asleep that night until at least two in the morning; her head resting on Andy’s lap as she lay on the couch, a soft blanket lying on her body. He continued to talk about his theory he was developing for his next line of technological service animals and she fell asleep mid-sentence, eyes gently fluttering closed. Andy knew she was out when he started to feel his own heartbeat grow steady and slow and his own eyelids began to grow heavy. With a soft smile on his face, he wondered if now was the best time to pull some kind of prank, like mess with her hair or draw on her face. But, of course, he was 21 years old now. His baby sister, who was only alive because of him, needed to be taken care of and encouraged, not hidden and pushed around. He picked up her little body in his hands and carried her up the stairs to her bedroom, laying her gently in her bed and throwing her own soft red blanket over her body. Instantly, Maria rolled over and snuggled against her pillow. 

Meanwhile, a thousand lights were swirling around in Maria’s head in a pool of darkness. There were pods of light blue, dots and specks of yellow, pink, purple, green. The lights danced amongst each other and created the most beautiful images; silhouettes of people who loved each other. Those silhouettes evaporated into fireworks that began bursting with so many brilliant colors. But each firework got redder and more orange after each explosion until there was smoke and ash falling everywhere. The yellow dots turned into two slits that almost looked like scowling eyes. Then the echoey laughter of a woman and the darkness turned into red, which started rippling and dripping as though it were… blood. Finally, the screams of a man as the woman’s laughter grew louder and more sinister. The silhouette in black against the blood red took more and more shape until it was revealed to be the limp dead body of Alexander Stark.

Maria rose from her bed, the room barely lit by the pale sky, which was barely beginning to see the morning sun. The first face she saw was Andy’s, sitting there on her bed as he leaned towards her. She breathed heavily, pressing her own hand to her forehead and feeling the sweat building up there. She didn’t need to ask. She didn’t need to know why he was there. That should be obvious enough by now. Andy shifted slightly over to Maria and took her in his arms again, but it was more like he needed to calm the both of them down. Their shared heartbeat was rapid and intense and they hugged each other until all was gentle and calm again. He had done this for every midnight tantrum when he was three and she was a newborn and he had no intention of stopping until she’d tell him to. 

* * *

Being pushed to the backline was never Maria’s favorite thing in the world, but it was what she had gotten used to all this time. Mom went to the office to save the company, dad jumped into his suit to save the world, and Andy shook hands with the press to save their reputation and building robots to save people. And Maria? She was only allowed to play with holograms. It was their primary concern to keep Maria at bay and out of harm’s way. Maria sitting at home was the best thing, especially for her parents. Not only could she watch the house, but she also had a really important job; babysitting.

Uncle Steve and Aunt Sharon, as Maria and Andy called them, were often out to glamorous events to represent the Avengers. Of course, to make them look good in the public eye, one sibling from each family was elected to attend for “family value”. Maria wasn’t even surprised when Andy Stark and Maggie Rogers were the ones to get dressed up to the nines, prepping go-to lines to say to the press. That left Maria with Sarah and Harrison Rogers; the 10 year old blonde twins. It didn't seem like it would be such an exhausting task, since their idea of a fun night is watching the entire Harry Potter Series in one go. The second Sarah and Harrison walked into the Stark Mansion, they ran straight past Maria and turned on the TV in the living room.

"I'm in for a wild night," Maria sighed as she turned to her Uncle Steve, who was dressed in a navy blue tuxedo with a matching tie and a red pocket square.

“They’re the easiest kids to please,” Steve chuckled, “and they love you, so-.”

“Yeah, because they’re used to me,” she said, trying her damn hardest not to sound crass or bitter… but this is Maria Stark we’re talking about. She even had to look down at her own outfit and compare it to the flare and pizazz of her uncle’s. Maria was dressed in jean shorts, sneakers, a tank top, and a flannel button up, open and resting on her shoulders, perfect to accompany her ginger ponytail and eyeglasses. It was the style she wore every single day, and this was one of those days when that fact pissed her off.

Steve offered her a comforting smile as he patted his goddaughter on the back, “I don’t know about that, but… I’d much rather sit here and re-watch Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for the 8th time instead of shaking hands with a bunch of strangers with cameras asking why I’m only just now talking to your dad again after three years.”

She paused, nodding her head slowly before her next words just spilled out of her mouth without even thinking of it, “I missed you, Uncle Steve.” A brief silence followed while she stared at the ground. Now it was time to figure out something sensible to say next after word vomiting on that moment. “I’ve said it before a dozen times, but… I know your friend didn’t mean to kill my grandparents… some really awful people did…” the kind of people she wanted to stop from hurting anyone else in the future. “And I guess dad finally understood that whole going above and beyond to protect the ones you love-.”

“Hey…” Steve assured her, patting her on the shoulder, “Lovers make mistakes when they think with their hearts instead of their heads. I wasn’t thinking with my head when I lied to your dad like that… but you…” He touched her head and she gave him a funny face, causing them both to laugh, “You’re a smart kid… use that head of yours more often… it’ll tell ya that a night at home with family far outweighs any red carpet event.”

Maria shrugged. "I just wanna experience it once and then I won't complain ever again."

"Not true," Andy interjected as he rushed down the stairs, "You're gonna complain anyway."

“With you as a brother, I always have something to complain about.”

Steve chuckled and he continued to do so even as Maria snapped her fingers towards her much taller brother. A car horn went off in the driveway and Steve was gone in an instant. Andy approached his younger sister with a confused look on his face. Maria got her hands on her brother’s crooked dark red tie, adjusting it so it rested perfectly in the center with no folding creases shown. But as her eyes wandered on the red fabric, she started to think of the red blood from her last nightmare. Andy cautiously looked down at her.

“I’m fine…” she whispered to calm him.

Maria looking back at Sarah and Harrison as they stared mindlessly at the screen, their eyes practically bulging out of her head. When she turned back, she was caught in a big bear hug by Andy. "If you need help, I'll know."

Pausing for a moment, she hugged him back around his torso. Him having the Potts genetic blessing, it made the hugs between them much more comfortable and warm for her. "I know," she answered.

"Let's go!" Tony called as he and his wife came down the stairs. He caught sight of Sarah and Harrison, “Chip, Dale, a pleasure as always.” Neither of them even flinched. 

“Have a good night, honey,” Pepper called, “Enjoy watching this movie for the third time.”

“Fourth,” Maria corrected, “It should be a chill night…” she nodded, throwing her hands into the back pockets of her jean shorts, “I called Peter… he’s gonna bring some pizza over… hopefully make this night less boring than it’s predicted to be.”

Pepper cast out a sigh of relief, nodding in approval. Because that’s all Maria wanted sometimes; just a nod of approval from her mother. It’s not like she was going to get anything better than that. 

Andy and Maria exchanged a nod before he opened the door and headed straight into the limo. Pepper relayed all of the same boring details she always did about babysitting, Tony told her not to break anything, and they were both out the door in seconds. When the limo had gotten just far enough to get out of sight, Maria immediately headed down to the garage, telling Angelo to keep an eye out in case anything bad were to happen.

She had finally finished her blueprints; a project that felt like an eternity to finish. Now it was time for Phase 2, or the part where she started actually building the gauntlet. She wasn't exactly ready to be a super genius like here dad, so she knew it would take some time figuring out the mechanics and trying it out all on her own. What she didn't expect was to seriously underestimate herself. After a mere hour, there was a circle of light attached to a repulsor generator wire attached to a sort of brace that wrapped around her arm and adapted to her movement. She walked up to a target and took a very deep breath before raising her hand to the circle. By simply tensing the muscles in her arm, she could feel the electricity and energy on her arm that resulted in a blast that pushed the target back several feet and even knocked her off her own.

"Not bad, Stark," Maria whispered to herself as she got up off the ground and went back to the table.

"Miss Stark," Angelo called.

"What's up?" Maria asked.

“Mr. Parker is at the front door.”

“Let him in,” she said mindlessly without interrupting her trip to her work table. She stared at it blankly for a moment, then lifted her head to the big robot arm that stood in the center of the room, “Dum-E!” The arm sprang to life, turning its front to her. “Nice, I got a response and it didn’t take five minutes. Good job. Now, where did you put my screwdriver?” The claws shifted slightly to the right. “What do you mean you don’t know?” the arm started to go down towards the floor. “Hey! Don’t give me that! Go get it.” The robot roamed around the room for 10 seconds too long, which caused Maria to throw her hand in her face.

Sweet relief from watching this stupidity came when she heard the sound of tapping on the glass. Her curled, thick, ginger ponytail flew over her shoulder and fell against her back like rustling waters as she looked, with those jungle green eyes to see Peter Parker on the other side of the door, his mouth open slightly and his eyes practically falling out of his head. But that expression on his face didn’t last long enough for Maria to genuinely notice. She just smiled at him as his face rested into a friendly grin. He waved at her. 

“I’m not coming out if there isn’t a triple cheese and pepperoni pizza from Bobby’s out there,” Maria teased.

Peter scoffed, “Ah well. I got a Joey’s triple cheese and pepperoni instead.”

Maria grinned. “Well done, Parker. Well done. You passed the test.”

She got up from her work table and headed towards the door to meet Peter and his proud smile, “I’ve head three years of best friendship to really nail down your favorite joint in Queens.”

“I’m sorry… did you think we were best friends?” Maria said before bursting into laughter.

“Ha ha,” Peter mocked, “I wouldn’t resist the smell of pizza in the car all the way from Queens for just anyone.”

Maria giggled and got up from the table to hug her best friend. 

“I Don’t Wanna Be by Gavin DeGraw…” Peter frowned as he listened to the music that played over the stereo in the lab, “A bit too angsty for you, Mars. Something wrong?”

Maria grabbed her wrist watch and used it to turn off the music before she sighed. “Let’s just discuss it over the pizza.”

By the time the two friends arrived to the kitchen of the Stark mansion, four slices of pizza were snatched and ended up on plates in the hands of two wildly stealthy twin children. Peter and Maria sat on bar stools at the kitchen counter, the overhead light dimly lit as to not ruin “the atmosphere of the movie”, as insisted upon by an unshakable Sarah Rogers. 

“Who wants to cater to a bunch of strangers anyway,” Peter commented, which was immediately shushed by Harrison. He lowered his voice. “Who cares what they think about you anyway? They’re going out there and saying you’re one big happy family when they could be here actually being one big happy family.”

“Unfortunately, I care,” Maria answered, “and you should too. If the public didn’t love Spider-Man, they’d have no reason to trust you and then you’d be arrested every time you try to help people.”

“Yeah, but is the love of the public really worth it if it’s all a lie?”

She shook her head, throwing her half eaten slice of pizza down onto her plate. “Screw you and your logic.” This somehow made Peter chuckle. “I just wanna feel like I’m doing  _ something _ … I watch the news cover stories where my dad is risking his life to save others and I’m just sitting here like… I can’t help at all. And my dad is nothing without my mom keeping the company afloat. Andy’s the prodigal son, destined to be the next Iron Man… Peter, I’m helpless and that just feels so… demeaning.”

“You know, you’re a lot more important to your folks than you think you are,” he added, “You may be sitting at home, but you’re right there with them all the time. They wouldn’t be doing any of this if they didn’t have something worth protecting.” And he knew exactly what that must be like.

“That’s a sweet but outdated notion,” Maria says, giving him a half smile as she picks up the slice of pizza again, taking a giant bite into it, “I wanna be a badass!”

Harrison’s head snaps back to shoot a glare at Maria. “Language!”

Maria and Peter both looked frightened at Harrison and then slowly turned their heads towards each other before they both start to choke back laughter. 

The sound of a click is heard before Angelo’s voice interrupts. “Miss Stark.”

“Angelo.”

"I think it only best to warn you that a very sudden thunder storm is forming over this coast and it looks rather rapid and very strong."

Before Angelo could even finish his report, Sarah and Harrison had already taken their attention away from the TV and to the glass door to the balcony overlooking the river. Maria and Peter both stood and rushed to the door. In the gray sky was a single large storm cloud that was near black. It seemed to be generating its own lightning and didn't seem to follow any natural weather patterns. Maria frowned. She opened the door and stood on the deck, squinting to get a better looking, examining the strange storm cloud, but the center of it suddenly burst with light.

"Get down!" she screamed to the kids as the bolt of lightning crashed down onto the deck, debris causing the glass door to shatter. It was as if all of it were happening slowly; second by second. Maria pushed Sarah and Harrison, causing them to slide against the marble floor all the way towards Peter. As Maria got caught up in all the debris and shattered glass, Peter watched her fall. He stretched out his arm to shoot a web towards her hand that was reaching out to him.

Meanwhile, at the party, Andy was in the middle of kissing ass with his mother until his heart started to suddenly race and then stop all together, causing him to lose his breath, as though he were taking shallow breaths.

"Andy?" Pepper hushed, leading him to a seat at a table. Tony’s attention snapped to his wife and son. Upon seeing their distressed faces, he rushed over from the mini-bar.

"What happened?" Tony asked, his hand rubbing his son’s back.

Andy caught his own breath, trying to steady his own heart beat. "Maria," he said worriedly, "Something's wrong."

All of the parents, Maggie, and Andy all rushed home immediately. Steve and Sharon took their children straight to the hospital to get them checked out. Meanwhile, Tony kept Maria under observation at the lab until all tests of any kind of head injury proved to be negative. She sat on the table, holding an ice pack to her head.

"How is she?" Pepper asked, hurriedly running into the lab.

"She's good," Tony answered, “Thank God that kid was here.”

"Good!" Pepper said with relief before immediately beginning to scold her child, "What happened out there!?"

"Angelo told me there was a storm and Sarah and Harrison were looking at it," Maria explained calmly, although it was apparent that her agitation was only beginning to bubble, "It looked like something weird was happening, so I went outside and saw this huge storm cloud. I got them out of the way before anything worse could happen."

"You should have been more careful!" Pepper scolded, "Why on earth would you stay outside?"

"The storm cloud was an abnormal occurrence," she defended, "I was trying to figure out what it was."

"And by doing so you almost killed your cousins," her mother snapped.

"I got them out of the way in time. They’re fine!"

"But then what would have happened to you," Tony added, slowly, quietly, “What if Parker wasn’t there.”

"Dad?" Maria said quietly. She expected this kind of reaction out of her mother, but her dad was supposed to be the one who was always on her side. At least he had proven to be on her side all these years.

"You do realize that you’re a miracle to us, right? To all of us?" Tony argued, "That bolt of lightning could have struck you. Falling, being pushed, hit, punched. It could all either kill you externally or disrupt the chip that’s keeping you alive.  _ Anything _ could kill you and there might not be anything we can do to stop it. So when we elect you to babysit instead of going out in public where anyone could strike at any time… it’s to protect the one thing none of us can live without… and that’s you."

"I can handle it, dad…” she says, somewhat disappointed that he had a fairly good point to make. She stood up, beginning to pace in front of the couch, “Look at me… I'm fine. I can't believe you're focusing on what I didn't do when I just saved Sarah and Harrison’s lives! You could scold me if I hadn't gotten them out in time, but I did! I thought you were supposed to believe in me!"

"You were distracted, Maria," Pepper added.

"If you want to play the hero, you can't be distracted," Tony spat.

"Then what's YOUR excuse, dad!?"

Silence followed. Tony looked down at the ground while Pepper crossed her arms, giving Maria the stare with a thousand knives behind it. She already knew what was coming and was halfway up the stairs in seconds. When she had slowly made her way all the way up to her room, she slammed the door and ran to her bed, screaming into the pillow. She hated feeling like a helpless child. It was the most frustrating thing in the world to her. After she had stopped screaming, she lay there on her back, playing with a hologram of space over her head, touching planets and moving them around at her will. Andy knocked on the door and opened it slightly, peeking his head in cautiously.

"Is it safe to enter?" he asked.

"Yeah..." she answered, not looking at him.

He pushed the door open, then closed it gently behind him, crawling onto the bed and sitting at the foot of it, facing his distraught sister.

"I don't need the bond to know how upset you must be," he began, "Believe me, if our parents told me I wasn't good enough after I felt I had done something good, for once, I'd be pretty pissed too."

"You have no choice but to feel pissed right now," Maria said plainly, dragging a star across the galaxy and watching it fly away on its own.

He nodded, "You're not just pissed." He placed his hand on the galaxy with his fingers stretched out. When he clasped his hand into a fist, he moved his hand to the side, making the hologram disappear. His sister frowned at him. "You're disappointed," he continued, "You feel like you could do something great here, but, instead, you're forced to sit and fold your hands and be the happy little sister. You feel like no one believes in you."

"Pretty much."

"Well you're wrong," Andy assured her, "Because I believe in you. I'll always believe in you."

She embraced her brother, who felt like one of her only friends. He told her she couldn’t give up, because history never remembers the quitters. The second he left the room, she pulled out a cabinet filled with things she could tinker with, pulling up her blueprints and finishing what she could with what she had. Whenever her parents weren’t in the house, she was in the lab, actually creating her own secret project, working tirelessly. She did not rest until she was able to flex her fingers and a fully imagined, and fully charged, gauntlet was wrapped around her arm and hand. Her very first completed work.


	4. Wings

“Pepper!” Tony called after his wife as he followed her confident strut down the stairs, “It’s just one night! A few hours, even. You don’t even have to be nice to me. You can yell at me the whole time! Tell me that doesn’t sound like a perfect night for you.”

“I don’t feel comfortable,” Pepper argued.

“What’s not to feel comfortable about?” Tony said, “It’s called date night with your husband. Wives have been doing it for years.”

“After what just happened to our house, you think it’s wise to just leave our kids alone?” Pepper asked.

“To be fair, I never once said I was wise,” Tony defended.

“True that,” Andy and Maria both said sitting on the couch, completely enveloped in whatever intellectual books they were reading.

“But,” he continued, taking his wife’s hands in his, “I do still want a nice quiet evening out with my wife, WITHOUT my kids around. No offense.”

“None taken,” they replied in the same monotonous tone.

“If you would like some peace of mind, I’ll call in Parker,” Tony assured her.

Maria put her book down with her jaw hanging open, “Okay,  _ some _ taken.”

“Honey…” Pepper hushed, “You can’t blame us for feeling a little more at ease when we know Peter is around to protect you… both of you.” she almost wanted to recall the last time Maria screwed up when she was in charge, but judging by the look of distaste on her daughter’s face, she let it go.

“Humor them,” Andy muttered under his breath.

“Fine,” Maria sighed, throwing her nose back into the book.

“There!” Tony said excitedly, taking out his phone, “See? Problem solved. In fact, our children are getting smarter by the minute. In about 5 minutes, there will be a spider around to keep things in check. No worries. Can we go now?”

Pepper pressed her lips together, looking from her children as they sat there mindlessly reading, to her husband, who was desperately pouting at her with those sad puppy dog eyes. “Okay, fine.”

“Yes,” Tony cheered quietly to himself, “Don’t wait up, kids. Be in bed at a reasonable hour. Go easy on the kid. Try not to blow up the house.”

“Blow up the house!?” Pepper panicked.

“Bye!” Tony waved, escorting his wife out the front door of the house. 

The moment the door closed, the sounds of their muffled banter slowly started to fade away until they were out of earshot. 

“Dad’s never gonna stop calling Peter ‘the kid’,” Maria observed, not even moving a muscle or tearing any attention away from her book.

“You’re both 18 and he still thinks you’re a baby... What do you think?” Andy replied.

Maria and Andy sat in silence for almost a total of 15 minutes, minds completely taking in every word and meaning from pages they were turning at alarmingly fast rates. They were Starks, after all. But the stillness and peace of the silence broke instantly when Friday announced that there was a guest at the front door.

“That is so much better than a stupid doorbell,” Andy commented before Maria threw down her book onto the coffee table and rushed to the door.

“Hey! What’s the trouble?” Peter asked, sounding quite frazzled.

“Didn’t you hear? You’re my babysitter now,” Maria said with the sarcasm laced into every word she spun. But he had no time to comment before she took his hand, which caused a surge of excitement to jump through him. She dragged Peter to the living room where Andy gazed at his baby sister with suspicion.

“What did you do?” Andy asked.

“Why do you assume I did something?” Maria asked, the pure joy coming across her face.

“Because you have that look.”

“What look?” Peter asked.

“She has this look that says she did something and she’s gonna show us.”

“There’s no look,” Maria insisted.

“Oh yeah? Then why are you smiling like that?” He said with his eyebrows raised, indicating that she was still holding onto Peter’s hand, which Andy noticed Peter was enjoying all too much. Maria’s eyes went wide and she released Peter’s hand instantly, which was rather like the light switch flipping on for Peter.

“I wanna show you guys something...”

“Was I wrong?” Andy asked Peter as he sighed in defeat, placing his book down on the coffee table, “What did you do?”

“You’re gonna freak,” Maria squealed, standing up as she started towards the lab, dragging both her brother and her best friend by their wrists along with her, “And remember, you said you believe in me.”

“A statement I regret to this day,” Andy said with a roll of his eyes towards Peter. Peter merely shrugged.

Maria practically threw the lab door open and stood on their father’s platform, “Okay, this is gonna be cool.”

“Maria! What are you doing?” Andy asked, “You can’t just stand there. That’s where dad stands when he suits up.”

“Watch!” Maria halted. She took a deep breath in, then sharply stretched out her right arm, a gauntlet suddenly attaching itself to her arm. She did the same with the other arm and a piece of machinery identical to it attached itself to her left arm. 

“What the hell…” Andy muttered to himself.

Peter could only seem to muster up enough voice to a quiet sense of awe. “Whoa…”

She squatted down, then propelled herself into mid air in a backflip. As her feet stretched out in front of her, two rocket boots of her own invention clung to her feet, ankles, and calves. Her body flung around in a full circle so she was floating upright in the air, a bright and proud smile coming across her face. “So?” Maria asked, slowly lowering herself onto the ground, “What do you think?”

Andy approached his sister, hand on his chin as though he had some kind of imaginary beard he could stroke. He squatted down to look at her boots, looking at them from all angles. “I like the white and dark red,” he said with a nod, “Dad doesn’t have any suits like that.” He continued his examination, looking up to her arms and judging the technique of her gauntlets. He instantly took her hand and pointed it towards the painted target that stood on the other side of the lab. She responded and blasted it, a quick, sharp, and lethal blast blowing the target a few feet backwards.

“This…” Andy sighed, coming back around to face his sister with what looked like a worried expression, but soon melted away into a smile, “This is-.” 

“Genius!” Peter said with excitement, which caused Maria to sigh with relief, “No, seriously. This is awesome, this is like-.”

“A work in progress,” Andy interjected, cautiously, “There definitely isn’t any real purpose in making this, but it’s a real good sign of your ability to-.”

“Dude, do you know what this means?” Peter asked Andy, as though his sense of caution and disapproEric was something to be ashamed of, “This could be the start of a whole new team of-.”

A loud boom caused the ground to shake momentarily before it stopped. Maria and Andy exchanged a look before all three of them rushed up the stairs to the deck window.

“Another storm?” Maria asked.

“I don’t get it,” Andy said, squinting at the cloud formation that only seemed to be above their neck of the beach, “Storms don’t just form like that.”

Maria shrugged. “Well they do if you’re…” she trailed off, both her and her brother now looking at each other with wide eyes, “You don’t think-.”

“Think what?” Peter asked.

“No way,” Andy said, shaking his head, “He’s still in space…”

“Space? Who went off into space?”

Andy dismissed Peter’s confused comments. “We were kids when we said goodbye to them. It was a long time ago...” He soon, too, started to trail off as he looked back at the storm, noticing something falling straight from the cloud. “Oh my god,” he panicked, “Maria! There’s someone falling from there. You have to do something!”

Without even hesitating, Maria burst through the open deck door and flew out of the house straight towards the little figure that kept fall and falling. The closer she got to it, the more it started to take the shape of a young man. One with blonde hair and a tough frame whose eyes were closed as he descended towards the ground. Just as he started to gain more momentum, Maria caught him by his shoulders, but he was extremely heavy, even for the pieces of her iron suit. It didn’t stop their plummet towards the ground, but it did slow it down until they landed on the sand and she let him go, causing a huge boom and a wave of the brown earth to burst into the air. Maria fell to the ground, coughing to get the sediments out of her mouth. Once she picked herself up, she stood up and rushed over the side of the fallen person.

“Okay…” Maria sighed, “Do me a favor and don’t be dead…”

She released one of her hands from her gauntlets to touch his face to make sure he didn’t feel cold. Once his eyes were fully opened, he looked almost dazed at the sight of her. Maria started cursing under her breath, wondering how the hell she was going to get him to a hospital, or something, if she couldn’t even get him to the ground that safely. Just as she threw a hand in her hair to panic, he reached up and grabbed her wrist, not aggressively, but gently, taking her hand down to his chest to feel his heartbeat. He frowned as he looked at her.

“Maria…?” he whispered.

Maria raised her eyebrows, scooting a little bit away from him, “Yeah…? Who the hell are you?”

He chuckled, “Have I honestly been away for so long that you’ve forgotten me entirely?”

“Should I know you?” Maria asked.

“Yes,” he said in his british accent as he sat up, stretching out his body as though he had simply taken a small trip, not fallen straight from the sky, “We played together as children. Don’t you remember?” Silence. “Ah… I was probably so small back then, of course you’d hardly recognize me. I was only 11 after all… But it’s me, Maria. Eric.”

Maria frowned. The last time she heard that name, she was still a kid pretending to play adventure as he ran around the beach, holding a stick and pretending to be a knight, but moments later, a tall, strong looking man came to her friend and told him it was time to leave Earth, and he gladly went with him. She didn’t understand any of it until her dad told her that his dad comes from space. Strange how she’d never thought of that day until now. But she gasped when she finally did remember, “Eric!”

He smiled, pulling her in to hug him, “Maria, daughter of Stark. It has been too long.”

“What are you doing here?” she asked, trying to stand herself up, “I thought you moved to space, or whatever.”

“Yes, but now I’m back on official business,” he said as he watched her struggle. He stood up on his own, then took his hands on either side of her and pulled her up effortlessly until she stood up on her own, “You alright?”

“Yeah,” she answered, brushing the sand off her body, “On a diplomatic journey to Earth? I thought you all had a bridge for entering this part of the universe. Why the theatrics?”

He shrugged, “It was sort of a last minute thing. Besides, my trip is strictly observational. My father decided it was time I come and live among you all for a change. It did him a world of good, so he figured, why not have it be my turn?”

“Well come on. I’m pretty sure you can stay with us while you observe,” she offered, “Andy is going to freak when he sees you.”

“Andy?” he asked, “Is that what we’re calling Alexander now?”  
Maria gasped. “That’s right! You were the one who kept calling him that.”

“It’s a good strong name,” he argued, “He should keep it.”

Maria chuckled as she looked back at her house from a distance. “So… you guys still do that flying thing or am I gonna have to carry you up there?”

He laughed, “We are still ‘doing the flying thing’.”

The two of them shared a glance before taking off from the ground and heading directly towards the deck of the Stark house. Once their feet landed on the deck, Maria stepped out of her iron suit pieces and left them to the side, entering through the glass door into the house.

“Andy!” Maria called.

Andy and Peter both came rushing up from the garage with a worried look on his face, “You okay? I couldn’t tell where you were. I saw the sand come up and- wait, Eric?”

Eric smiled at the other as they embraced. “It’s good to see you, Alexander.”

Andy exchanged a look with his sister as he removed himself from the Asgardian’s embrace. “Oh! Oh hey! Eric, this is Peter Parker. He’s a hero just like our parents.”

“Well then” Eric said, approaching the shorter man with his muscular arm and hand stretched out to him, “I suppose I should offer you my gratitude for defending Earth… and all it’s treasures.” He shot a very soft and quick look towards Maria, which made her cheeks blush.

“H-Hey,” Peter mumbled, “I-I’m Spider-Man, I mean, Peter. Either is fine.”

“The Spider,” Eric nodded, “A pleasure to meet you. I am Eric, son of Thor, prince of Asgard, and future champion of Earth.”

Peter would be lying if he said his stomach didn’t implode in that very moment.

“So what?” Andy said, patting Eric on the back, “You finally figured out space wasn’t good enough for you?” 

“My parents think highly of Midgard,” Eric sighed, looking around at the house, “My father is the keeper of it and my uncle has desired it for many years… I thought it was time to get to know it so that I may one day love it and defend it as they did.”

“If it’s earth you wanna get to know, you’ve come to the right place,” Maria enlightened, “New York is the best place to get a little bit of everything.”

“We Starks know pretty much every corner of the Earth,” Andy added, “You name it, Maria and I probably know about it.” 

Even if Eric was listening to Andy speak, his eyes were all too focused on Maria, which she noticed right away. Peter noticed as well. It was like watching two historically breathtaking Greek sculptures stare at each other, the air between them smoking with sexual tension, which also meant sudden and eminent doom for Peter. 

“So it worked, huh?” Peter choked out as he glanced down at the boots and gauntlets Maria still had attached to her.

“Pretty much,” Maria shrugged, glancing at Eric, “Except for that crash landing.”

“Wait… you built those on your own?” Eric asked. The look of wonder in his eyes made Peter want to smack his forehead with his hand.

Maria looked down on her invention with pride, “Yeah… I did.”

“Hello!”

The voice of Pepper came ringing in through the house. Andy and Maria’s eyes went wide as they glared at each other, both stricken with fear to see Maria still in her suit. But quicker than the blink of an eye, the pieces opened and removed themselves, folding over and over again until they were smaller than pocket squares in her hand. She stuffed them into her jeans pocket, then folded her hands in her lap with a smile on her face for her mother.

“You guys are back early,” Andy said quickly.

“We’re back earlier than you thought,” Pepper corrected as she marched into the room.

“Kid?” Tony called.

“Mr. Stark,” Peter responded.

“How we doing here? All good?”

“All good, sir.”

“Thanks.” Tony pat Peter on the back, but didn’t even bother glancing up from his phone to notice the large blonde muscular man standing in the living room next to his daughter. But it was Pepper who noticed instantly.

For a half of a second, Pepper really wanted to believe her kids didn’t just hire a male stripper, but that thought was gone quicker than it came. “Eric! I didn’t know you were coming!”

“Mrs. Stark,” Eric said sweetly, head bowing to the redheaded mother, “I bring you greetings from Asgard and from my parents as well. They’ve sent me down here to explore your Earth from a close point of view.”

“My how you’ve grown!” Pepper said with wide eyes.

“Who’s grown?” Tony Stark said, parading into the room in a suit and sunglasses at dusk, “Certainly not any of my kids.”

Maria and Andy frowned.

“Honey, come look who’s here!” Pepper said excitedly, “It’s Eric. Thor and Jane’s oldest.”

Tony squinted as he removed his sunglasses. Last time he saw that kid, he was skinnier than a stick and his favorite pastime was running around, chasing his little girl. His own eyes went wide he caught the sight of him, looking as handsome as a male stripper.

“Well look at you…” Tony said, beginning to pace about the room, “You would do just about anything to pull at one of Maria’s pigtails, wouldn’t you?”

“Tony,” Pepper muttered, shaking her head.

“Dad,” Maria sighed, “That was when we were five.”

“Of course you were,” Tony laughed, “Well how long are you planning on staying with us this time?”

Eric nodded, “Until my father calls me home.”

“Well, that is extremely vague,” Tony sighed, “I’d offer you one of our guest rooms, but I’d prefer not having a buff blonde demi-demi god from parts unknown trying to get into my daughter’s parts unknown-.”

“Tony!” Pepper scolded. Andy coughed back a laugh, “Ignore my husband, he says things like that all the time.”

“My father warned me ahead of time,” Eric laughed.

“I think what he was trying to say is,” Pepper continued, giving Tony the side-eye, “If you need a place to stay, we are more than happy to host you here.”

“Yes, that is what I meant,” Tony nodded.

“That’s very kind of you,” Eric said, bowing his head, “Thank you.”

“It’s no trouble at all,” Pepper said, finally feeling like she was a woman back in control of her household once again. Tony clearly didn’t want to say anything for fear of setting her off once again. He was liking this version of his wife in front of him. 

Maria was the first to insist she give Eric a tour of the house. Never mind what her father thought of her speaking up so loudly about it. What she really wanted to do was show him the garage. After showing Eric the four guest rooms, five luxury bathrooms, Friday system, two kitchens, and three living room spaces, they headed down the stairs.

“What’s this place?” Eric asked once he got a glimpse of the high tech space through the large glass windows.

“The Garage,” Maria said, tapping her fingers against the scanner.

“Good evening Miss Stark,” Angelo’s voice called once the door was opened.

“Evening Angelo,” Maria said, walking through the door, Eric following slowly behind her, “Guest protocols, please.”

“Of course, miss,” Angelo answered.

The lights in the room started to turn on as a wrack of Iron Man suits appeared, each with a spotlight of their own. The TV in the lounge area turned on, as did the lamps and the small lights over the cabinets and coffee machine.

“This is quite the setup you have for a Midgardian,” Eric observed.

“Oh please, like you actually have scientific labs in Asgard?” Maria challenged.

“Of course we do,” he said with ease as the two of them began to step down into the lab.

“I would have thought that you’d have something, like, magical secret lairs where magical fairy dust is flying all over the place, making everything operate the way it's supposed to.”

Eric chuckled, “Well their technical term is actually laboratory and it’s not fairy dust. It is the energy of the planet that sustains us and everything that operates to keep us healthy and strong. We come up with technical advances to improve our lives, but it all comes from the magical energy of Asgard… it’s where my family’s strength comes from.”

Maria lost her breath, not only at the ridiculous image that just popped into her head actually being true, but also at how comfortable and easy it was for him to just say something like that. It sounded so poetic and mystical. No wonder Jane fell so hard for one of those Asgardians. It was difficult enough not to go weak at the knees after hearing them explain things that were so simple to them.

“And you… what do you do in here?” Eric asked as he looked around at the room, “What purpose does such a facility have for you?”

“I build,” she said, walking up to her work table. She pressed on the blue pad and raised her hand gently upwards to reveal a series of rectangles, each of with file names on them, “I come down here to design and build things… things that I think might help the world, help my dad… or just for fun sometimes.” 

“And what’s this one?” 

She pressed on the file that said “E.M.H.” in bold white letters and it opened up to reveal different parts that were scattered in the air around Maria and Eric’s heads.

“My word…” Eric said, sounding amused enough for what looked like child’s play for him, “What is it?”

“Well… these two parts are what I was wearing when I found you,” her fingers danced over the two gauntlets and boots, placing them into one central area, “and these two parts,” she touched the upper arm and thigh plates and connected them to the other moving parts, “they’re mostly for protection… and then this,” she moved her fingers to the chest plate and abdomen part, attaching it to the suit, “this is meant to house kinetic energy and then redistribute it-.”

“Causing a blast…” he finished, both of them staring at one another as the glow from the holograms reflected off of their skin, “That is absolutely brilliant.”

“And it’s made from the strongest metal on Earth…” she added with a grin.

“And how did you manage that?”

She shrugged with that Maria Stark grin of hers, “You think I don’t keep in touch with other princesses?”

“Funny…” Eric sighed as he took Maria’s hand that was still in the air and brought it down between them, “I look at you and I wouldn’t think you are a princess… you seem too capable for that.”

Maria opened her mouth to speak, but stopped and pressed her lips together instead. But was it so bad to want that? She seemed more like a relic locked in a dungeon. What would it be like to be a princess? To be respected and feared and have only one level left to go before reaching all of that power and responsibility. Was it so bad to want to be the princess?


	5. Stark Technology

The peaceful sounds of classic songs were playing from Maria’s radio station, which, obviously, brought a lot more pleasure to her time in the lab than listening to her dad’s angsty rock music. “Come and Get Your Love” by Redbone gently played, as there weren’t any loud pieces being moved around today. Maria and Peter simply roamed around the lab with blue holograms, slowly pulling apart the suit piece by piece until there was nothing but little nuts and bolts. Maria had a very specific plan for her suit, so she wanted everything to be precise and perfect. At least that’s what she insisted upon quite fiercely when Peter first arrived. Now, about an hour and a half had passed and the tinkering had become so involuntary that they were bobbing their heads to the music as they conversed with one another. Well… it was more like Maria was trailing on and on while Peter listened with willing ears.

“How do you even describe Coney Island to someone who has never been?” Maria asked, quite rhetorically, “It’s not an experience you can share verbally. You have to physically be there to truly feel it… and that’s exactly what I told Eric when he asked me what it is. So, naturally, we had to do something about it, I mean, I wasn’t just gonna go and say something like that to make the whole thing seem like a big deal and then leave him sitting there on the couch in suspense. So we hopped into my car and drove all the way to Coney Island and I swear, Pete, we must have gone on every ride at least twice. Did you know they literally don’t have anything like this on Asgard?”

Well, semi-willing ears. “Imagine that…”

“So he takes one look at the Wonder Wheel and he’s like,” she cleared her throat, putting on her best muscular-blonde demigod accent, “I have never seen anything like this before. What on Earth could it possibly be for?” She continued speaking as if she were on a literal cloud in the sky, “I didn’t know what to tell him, so I was like, oh, it’s just a place for couples to go way up high and see the ocean, but we both fly, so it kind of seems silly. Meanwhile, internally I’m thinking… yeah! I can fly now! So why am I so afraid of this stupid Wonder Wheel?”

“You’ve been afraid of the Wonder Wheel since you were 11 when you threw up at the top and passed out on the way down.”

“Yeah, yeah, so ridiculous. He took me onto the wheel and, Peter… it was so much better than flying.”

Peter cleared his throat. “Really...”

“We were just in that tiny gondola together with no choice but to hold onto each other tightly and I swear… we were about to kiss as we looked over at the scenery around us…” she let out a romantically charged sigh, “I have never felt so dangerous but so safe at the same time in a man’s arms.” Peter wished the hologram of the blasters he was repairing were real so he could use it to shoot himself in the leg. “It really feels like everything’s coming together… the suit, dad trusts you now more than ever, Andy and I haven’t had a screaming match in at least a week, and Eric is here…” 

As Redbone faded, Elton John and Kiki Dee faded in with “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”, which caused Maria’s jaw to drop. Her little stature was so filled with joy that she could barely contain it all. Peter, as much as he enjoyed seeing her so happy, was especially not in the mood to hear this song of all songs for so many reasons.

“Oh come on, Pete! This is our jam!” Maria insisted as she began to bop her head to the beat, pushing the holograms to the side. Peter merely shook his head, trying to focus back in on the hologram, which she quickly pushed away. He sighed, dramatically throws his hands to the side, “You know you wanna…”

And with that, Maria began to mouth the word to the song, which merely got an enthusiastic lip synch from Peter in return. So Maria grabbed his hand and tried to get him to dance with her. Not that he needed a reminder that she probably gets to do this and more with a man much more stacked than he. Nevertheless, Peter could only resist the small strands of red hair that she purposefully pulled from her ponytail to fall on either side of her face, framing that smile and her green eyes just perfectly. Then there was the way her flannel moved about as she danced playfully, like it revealed a secret but kept a thousand more. So much about her made him want to smile. This was his best friend, for crying out loud. How often does a middle-aged man walk into your house, offering to change your life forever, and in doing so, gives you everything you could have ever wanted; the chance to help people, access to all the technology he needs, and the kind of girl you wouldn’t trade for anything in the world. Crazy, he thought, which was the thought that actually got him more enthusiastic, spinning her around fast and watching that ponytail fly, jumping around the empty space in the lab like idiots as they dramatically lip synched to the song that they chose together as the song they had to find each other and dance to, no matter what they were doing. 

The music was cut-off with a click. Both of them turned to the doorway to see the unchanging resting bitch face that belonged to brother dearest. 

“My dog down here?” Andy asked.

“Did you have to turn the music off to ask that?” Maria rebutted. 

The two of them exchanged a sassy glare before Andy flipped the music back on, the volume low and Peter and Maria’s song skipped. The moment was gone as far as either of them were concerned, despite how different they defined “the moment” as. Andy paraded into the lab and knelt beside Howard, the mechanical robot dog. He pet the thing momentarily before going into its back and digging to find any dead parts. Only after he finished his inspection did he turn to see Peter and Maria back at it with the holograms all over the center of the lab.

“Peter, you done with the blaster yet?” she asked, fixated on the gauntlet shape.

“Yeah,” he answered, tossing the it over to Maria, which she caught without even flinching. 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Andy said worriedly as he rose to his feet, approaching the two smaller humans, “What is all of this?”  
  
“It’s a robot best friend I’m using to replace Peter,” Maria’s sarcasm was spry and full of causality and delight, still not tearing her attention away from the plans.

Peter, who also was unswayed, simply waved his hand towards, what he hoped was, Andy’s direction. “I didn’t make the cut this time.”

Andy began to march towards the holograms. “You can’t actually be serious about… building an entire suit of armor and weaponry?”

Maria raised her eyebrows. “Did you think I was kidding when I showed you what I made the other day?”

“Well… I thought you were maybe 20% kidding,” Andy said, which caused Maria to close her eyes for a brief moment, which was the gentle equivalent of a facepalm, “or maybe you would just be satisfied with boots and hands and that’d be it.”

“I’m hardly satisfied with hand stuff.”

“But a whole machine…?” Andy sounded a lot more anxious than angry, “Mars, we’re not talking about battle simulations at the compound, which we’ve never even been to… this is real war and battle. People would be genuinely trying to kill you.”  
  
“They’d have to catch me first,” Maria said, crossing her arms. Andy rolled his eyes. “What? You don’t think I can survive a fight?”

“No offense, baby sister, but your physical stature doesn’t exactly scream intimidating,” he said, covering up his comment with a friendly chuckle, “I mean, come on, have you ever actually kicked  _ any _ ass before?”

Maria crossed her arms before looking at her brother up and down, as though she were scanning him. The second her fists went up in the air, Andy ducked out of her way, but got caught in an entanglement she made with her feet, which caused him to lose his foot, which gave her an opening to pin him down onto the cold ground of the lab. Peter let out a gasp, which ended up being much louder than he intended it to be, so he turned quickly back to his work to avoid any frightening glares from Andy.

“Okay… ow,” Andy sassed. Maria gave him a prideful shrug before reaching out her hand to help him up, “Where did you even learn that?”

“Maggie,” she said proudly before turning back to her designs. If Andy’s jaw could drop to the floor in that moment, it would have. Andy didn’t even know Maria could fight, let alone learned it from one of the greatest, most feared young fight and battle strategists in the country. 

“Mom and dad are gonna freak out,” was the only thing Andy could think of to argue against her.

“Which is why you’re not going to say anything until I’ve proven to them, and the rest of the world, what I can do,” she said calmly.

“I don’t know about this…” Andy muttered as he began pacing around the area.

“Hey,” Peter snapped, shoving his holograms to the side, “You may not feel totally at ease with this idea, but as someone who’s seen a whole lot of shit, and as someone whose ass she has kicked-.”

“He knew!?” Andy said to Maria as he pointed at the much shorter male in the room.

Maria nodded, “I had to spar with someone when Maggie wasn’t around.”

Peter, after ignoring that little interruption, continued, “I think she can do this, Andy. I really… really do.” Andy caught Peter looking at his baby sister while she, all the while, kept her focus on her work, tinkering with designs as if it were child’s play. And there was Peter nearby, looking at her ginger ponytail like she was a box of chocolates after a juice cleanse.

“Well, of course  _ you’re _ encouraging her,” Andy groaned.

Maria frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Peter stared at Andy, hard. His eyes were going wide and he tried to shake his head as subtly as he could, which looked more like he was vibrating with panic. Andy sucked in a deep breath. “Nevermind…” He looked around at the holograms that were thrown about all over the place. She really paid attention to detail, he thought. “This is a bad idea,” he breathed.

“Well… that’s too bad,” Maria sighed, “Because I have a shipment coming in from Wakanda this afternoon.”

Andy’s jaw dropped once again, as if his heart couldn’t sink any deeper into his stomach than it already had, “Tell me you didn’t call Shuri… which would be a lie because of course you called Shuri.”

“Yes I did,” Maria confirmed nonchalantly. 

“How do you intend on hiding that from mom and dad when it arrives at the house?”

“It’s disguised… and not coming to the house…”

Andy’s glare intensified. “Oh no,” he protested, “You are not breaking into the compound. Wait, let me rephrase that. You  _ can’t _ break into the compound, you know why? Because dad restricted access to Avengers and official agents only.”

“Well, then it’s a good thing we’ve got an Avenger…” 

Andy’s glare shifted from Maria to Peter, who was holding as still as possible as though he were facing a wild giant animal in the woods and didn’t know quite what to do to scare it off. 

“No,” Andy argued, “You’re not even official.”

“Sad, but true,” Peter said, cautiously, “But… my retinal scan should be in their database from when I went to pick up my new web shooter from your dad last week.” He looked towards Maria, “He built an iPod in that thing!”

“No way!” Maria gasped.

“I know, right!? And the headphones are in my mask.”

“Does it have bluetooth? I bet I could find a way to add that feature so you can play music out loud while you’re kicking ass-.”

“Seriously, guys!” Andy shouted, causing both Maria and Peter to jump in their skin a bit. He sighed, pacing about as he put his hands in his hair. Peter never understood how Maria remained so calm around her brother when he was just so… big and intimidating and terrifying when stressed or angry or contemplative… which were pretty much his three default moods. “Okay…” Andy sighed, “I can’t stop you… so whatever happens… I want nothing to do with it.”

“No!” Maria protested, turning to her brother, “I need you to be my guy in the chair!”

“Guy in the chair?” Andy asked with a heavy frown, “What does that even mean?”

Peter interjected, raising his hand, “You know, the sidekick who sits in a chair at the computer. He’s the smart guy who tells the other guy where to go and has all the answers and he usually swivels between two computers in one of those rolling office chairs…” As Peter trailed off, Andy shot him a confused and condemning look. Peter continued, stuttering, “N-Ned is my guy in the chair…”

“Why can’t you be her guy in the chair?” Andy whined to his baby sister.

“I need him with me,” she insisted.

“Yeah, she needs me with her,” Peter said, puffing his chest out to get some kind of confidence in this room full of physically attractive and frightening geniuses.

“What about Eric?” 

“Eric’s the distraction,” Maria explained, “Why do you think he’s not here right now? He’s having lunch with dad and then getting a tour of the compound.”

Andy looked at the ground. “Son of a bitch…”

Maria ducked her head low to get a good look at her brother’s face. “Andy… out of all the people I trust the most, not only are you number one, but you’re also the only one who’s even close to my intelligence level.” Andy rolled his eyes so Maria charged herself towards him, placing her hands on his arms to keep him from leaving, not that that would be effective at all. “Please… I have been shut in and told I can’t achieve anything I believe in all my life… and I’ve just been sitting here in this lab, dreaming of what it would be like to save lives instead of waiting to watch the death toll climb on the news… I  _ can _ do this, Andy, and whether or not you’re on board with me, I  _ will _ do this. I have everything I need… but I’m that much more safe with you having my back.”

Andy desperately wanted to find something else to use to protest once again, to show his disdain. Underneath the sour disposition was a shaking man who can only think about holding his dead sister’s body in his arms and bringing her to his parents. But if he were to just tell that shaking man to shut up and open his eyes to what’s in front of him, he’d see a triumphant fighter, standing over her fallen victims who had dared ever try to question her and her power. That was the girl that lived in the eyes of the redheaded girl that stood before him. She oozed that confidence and the grit that was required to take this on. So, the tallest Stark let out a long sigh.

“Okay, fine,” he brooded, but his words caused his sister to jump with glee, which slapped that smile on his face, “I’ll be the guy in the goddamn chair… and if you become a hero and are inevitably caught by mom and dad, you better do what a hero would do and take all the blame because I officially am doing this to be nice.”

“Nope…” Maria doubted, “You’re doing this because you believe in me.”

Andy rolled his eyes as he smiled while being hugged by Maria. Peter was amazed at how Andy seemed to be this untamable beast until he looked at the one thing that could ruin him. Maria had that power and Peter knew exactly what it was like to fall victim to it. 

“Okay! I’m getting a drink before we go,” Maria said excitedly, “Shuri gave me the tracking number, can you find it?”

“Aw… I thought my first task would be actually challenging.”

Maria chuckled, her confidence and hope raising and reaching new levels. “Pete?”

“Root beer, please!” he called to her.

She shot him finger guns before practically jumping out of the lab and up the stairs. Nobody could blame her. It was in this moment that her biggest dream would come true. Peter fed off the happiness that radiated off of her as he watched her go; her ponytail moving up and down and all around, her flannel shifting and moving against her stature, the way she moved with diligence and joy at the same exact time. If he squinted, he would swear he’d see sunlight radiating off her pale skin and distributing it around the room, one of the beams reaching his heart and making it skip a beat.

“Put your tongue back in your mouth.” The sound of Andy’s voice, once again, made Peter jump in his skin. No amount of Maria Stark sunshine could stop him from being afraid of her big brother, and maybe that’s exactly the way things are meant to be, he thought. Andy was sitting in his office chair in front of two computer monitors, so once he shifted his eyes slightly up, all he saw was Peter Parker with his eyes and tongue falling off of his face. “Could you at least try and make your crush on my sister less obvious around me?”

“M-My what?” Peter asked, leaning against a stand of shelves, which had wheels underneath it so he lost his foot and nearly toppled to the ground before catching himself. His cheeks turned pink.

Andy chuckled, shaking his head, “Don’t take this as an insult, because it’s morally wrong to be good at it, but you are a terrible liar.” Peter adjusted his clothes and ran his hands through his hair, as if that could somehow make him look cooler and more chill than Andy Stark (which would be impossible). Peter’s mouth began to open to form some kind of words, but Andy laughed again. “Dude, relax. You aren’t the first guy who’s ever had a crush on her, I know what it looks like. You should have seen how the last pizza delivery guy used to look at her.”

“The last pizza guy?” Peter asked, nervously.

“Yeah. Dad saw him checking out her ass and got him fired and moved to Toledo.”

Fear struck through Peter. “I swear… I’m not trying to chase after her or objectify her or hit on her or anything like that.”

“I know,” Andy responded, plainly, “In case you haven’t noticed, us Starks know you quite well. Dad predicted you’d crush on her from the moment he met you. And you know what he said?” Peter shrugged. “He said ‘he’s actually decent enough to earn her one day… but it’s too bad he won’t stand a chance’.” 

Peter frowned, “What do you mean, I won’t stand a chance?”

“Oh come on, dude… she’s got a multi-million dollar trust fund and that’s off of inheritance alone, not what she could make off of her future inventions… and that’s without what she could get with this whole hero thing. She’s about to get more intimidating than she already is, and you… well… you can climb walls.”

“I’m also really strong,” Peter added, but his voice got quieter when he caught Andy’s glare, “Nah, I know she wouldn’t go for me… I’m a small, skinny kid from Queens and she’s… you know… she’s Maria. She’s smart and funny and confident and beautiful and  _ so _ not on my level…” He nodded to himself, trying to chuckle during his next comment, “You know, she  _ should _ be with guys like Eric. I mean, did you see her look at him? Him and his big arms and dorito body shape and hair. How am I ever gonna compete with that, right?” As hard as he tried to laugh it off, he let out his sigh with a few choked up chuckles before sitting down in a chair, spinning himself around in a slow circle as his face fell. 

Andy watched the whole sad and pathetic scene play out, and he was shocked when he felt a tug at his heart. “I suddenly feel like singing Fix You right now,” he stated. He found the location of the package against a black and gray moving map on his screen and then stood up from his chair. “Hey, kid… I know my sister… and she would never look at you out of the context of best friend-.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“But…” Andy’s pause made Peter stop spinning his chair, his back facing the Stark male, “You’re not so bad. All Eric’s got going for him is that he’s from space, but you? You  _ know _ her better than he does. Eric doesn’t know what her favorite song is and why, Eric probably won’t jump around the lab and dance like an idiot with her… and he can’t know what a good slice of triple cheese pizza means to her… and truthfully? I mean… if you ask me… Eric kinda seems like a pretty boy… and I can’t stand pretty boys. They’ve always got some kind of agenda.”

Peter slowly turned the chair around until he faced Andy with an indifferent, blank stare on his face. “So… none of that  _ really _ helped… but thanks for trying anyway.”

“Oh that wasn’t trying… but you’re welcome.”

* * *

Andy operated from his bedroom, setting up his own two monitors there and making

Sure the sound proof protocol was in place with an excellent alibi waiting in the wings in case his mother started asking questions. Meanwhile, Peter drove Aunt May’s car, “Jessie’s Girl” playing softly over the stereo and Maria sat comfortably in the passenger seat, the window down and her hand making a wave-like motion to flow with the wind as it passed. The two strands of hair, purposefully pulled out of her ponytail, framed her face just right and with the wind blowing, it rustled and gave her a majestic look as she peacefully stared at world around her… not that Peter was noticing because that would mean he wasn’t focused on that road and that’s dangerous. 

Anyway.

The view of the Avengers compound started to creep in through the trees, piece by piece, as though they were watching a puzzle come together. Maria sighed. Peter glanced at her for a split second before turning his head back to the road.

“You good?”

“Yeah…” she assured him, “It’s just so… pretty.”

Peter nodded, “Yeah… yeah, it really is.”

Maria began to undo her seatbelt, so Peter slowed up the car so she could do it safely. She started to creep down behind the front seats of the car, making sure she followed what they practised, so she couldn’t be seen by anyone whom Peter may encounter on their way in.

“Hey,” she signaled, “Turn off the music.”

“What? Why?”

“That’s so  _ obviously _ a song from my playlist. They’ll know I’m with you instantly.”

“No way, they know I’m into this stuff too.” Also, this song was a total mood for Peter at the moment, so him angstily listening to this at full volume wouldn’t be that far fetched anyway. “It’s not that far fetched to believe that after 3 years, our tastes in music have combined because, well… it’s the truth.”

Maria rolled her eyes with a grin as she shrank back down into the back seat.

The car pulled up to the gates of the compound and Peter was immediately met by a small white ball on a pole. 

“Retinal scan required,” the generic mechanic voice stated.

Peter pushed his head slightly out the window and looked right into the little camera on the white ball.

“Voice identification, please.”

“Spider-Man,” Peter announced.

After a split second, the voice responded with, “Denied.”

Peter frowned, then leaned further out the window, as if he could try the next codename without Maria hearing him. “Spider-boy... ”

“Denied.”

“Spiderling?” he asked, as he sank back into the car seat.

“Denied.”

Peter thought for a moment, then his cheeks started to go pink, hoping that he would never have to refer to himself, or hear himself referred to, in this way. It was a thing when he was 15 years old and he hoped he had left that thing in the past. He especially didn’t want to say it when Maria could clearly hear him. He let out a defeated sigh.

“... Underoos.”

“Welcome, Mr. Parker.” The gates of the door opened. Peter had a feeling, and his feeling was correct. From the backseat, Maria kept her composure, but her lips were pressed together to suppress the chuckle she so desperately wanted to release. 

The car moved onward towards the main building, but Peter drove the car along the outer road, approaching the significantly smaller building known as the Shipment Department. It certainly looked much more run-down than the rest of the glorious modernity of the main house and other training facilities.

Once the window was rolled up and the car was turned off, Maria spoke in the quietest of voices. “Can’t shake Underoos, can ya?”

“Shut up,” Peter chuckled, shaking his head as he got out of the car.

Maria opened the back door just wide enough for her small body to creep through and hide on the back end of the building as Peter casually walked right through the front door of the building. Immediately upon entering, Peter was met with the office where dozens of mailboxes were bolted into the walls. Just to the side, there was a grey door behind a desk, but he was much more focused on the man in the gray delivery-man suit.

“Hey,” Peter choked out before clearing his throat, “I’m Peter Parker... I’m checking on a package coming in. A pair of lenses for my suit.”

The man’s look glazed over from the computer to Peter as if he were a sloth. “Spider-Man?”

“Yeah… that’s right,” Peter nodded, nervously crossing his arms. Because that’s the anxiously, overly excited, and consistently nervous Peter Parker everyone at the compound had either known or heard of. 

The man looked at the computer and began typing until he pulled up an elaborately long email. His eyes glazed over more than they already had before he scrolled down to find the print in blue, which was a phone number.

“We got an email from the supplier today. Says we gotta call in to check on the progress.”

“Cool, cool…”

The man picked up the phone and slowly dialed each number on the keypad as carefully as he could. Peter watched, fidgeting with his fingers as though he could crack his knuckles to make himself look tougher in that situation. 

The phone rang for about 20 seconds, although it felt like 5 as Peter began to actually get a little bit nervous for Maria. Not that he had any  _ actual _ reason to be. With their minds combined and then adding Andy’s on top of that, their plan was fool proof. Simple, easy to understand, yet completely foolproof.

“Hello, Lense Tech. How can I help you?” was the sound Peter heard on the other end of the phone call.

“Yeah, we got a kid here who said he placed an order of lenses for his suit. The spider one,” the mail man said plainly.

From Andy’s room, he held the phone to his ear, speaking in a very deep and yet very nasal tone, trying to keep it as monotonous as possible. “Oh sure,” Andy said with a nod, “Can you read out the order confirmation number to me?”

The mail man pulled up the email and started to squint. Peter would have smiled right now, if he could. Meanwhile, Maria was able to disable the code to the garage area of the department by adding in her own nanobot to break it. Tony really should have thought more about hiding his hacking nanobots that he used on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s aircraft before his child replicated the technology she needed to break in undetected.

She accurately located the location of the security camera and pressed her finger to her ear where her in-ear speaker was placed.  “Andy?”

“I’m sorry, I missed those last three numbers. Can you read them again?” Andy said in his manipulated voice, as he was still in the middle of distracting the mailman, all the while, he was hacking into the system to replace the security footage so Maria could walk in without any cameras picking up on her trail. After the fact, he disabled the audio as well, which was a trick he picked up from dear old dad. Andy made the red light on the camera blink 3 times in a pattern so Maria would know she was safe.

She still kept a low-profile and managed to hide behind some of the taller stacked wooden boxes. Then she approached one box that had the Wakanda “W” pasted on top, which Maria recognized as the logo Shuri liked to use to sign her work with. After prying the box open, she found, resting on a cross shaped iron necklace stand, what looked like a pearl necklace, except the balls of the pearls were much chunkier, rougher, and darker. They seemed to glow purple, as if they wanted the beholder to know it was keeping some kind of secret. 

Maria reached into one of her pockets and pulled out the prototype Shuri had harmlessly sent her once before. She removed the real necklace and placed it in her pocket, replacing it with the prototype. They both seemed to weigh about the same. Good thinking on Shuri’s part. With it came a note that said “Get shit done -Shuri”. She laughed and pocketed the note as well before resealing the box and sneaking out of the garage, being careful to remove the hacking nanobot as well. 

She began to turn the corner to jump back into the back seat of the car when she suddenly saw Eric and her father walking towards the Shipment Department doors.

“Peter, we got a situation,” Maria said quietly.

Peter, who was just about to leave the office, saw through the glass door, the very situation Maria sounded shaken up over. Thinking as fast as he could, he pushed the door open and very obnoxiously loud shouted, “Hey, hey, Mr. Stark! Eric! What are you guys doing here?”

“Hey, kid, just showing Eric where his dad works once in a blue moon,” Tony explained, “What are you doing here?”

“I was just checking on a package. My lenses in my suit… they’re getting a little worn down,” Peter said, extending the vowels of his words to buy Maria more time, “you know, when bad guys keep trying to throw stuff at your face to kill you... those things can only handle so much.”

“No, yeah,” Tony agreed, “I’ll bring them over once they arrive. Although, maybe I should just bring them back to my house, considering that’s where you’ll likely be anyway.”

“Is the spider a frequent visitor of your facilities?” Eric asked Tony.

Tony sighed and pat Peter on the back, “Ever since he and my daughter became fast friends.”

“Ah yes, she mentioned how chummy the two of you were.”

“C-Chummy, huh?” Peter asked as if he knew what that word meant, except that he didn’t at all.

“That’s right, she’s very fond of her best friend,” Eric confirmed. Though he only seemed to confirm exactly what he already knew. 

“Well… speaking of fond best friends, I should get back to it,” Peter said before walking towards his car. He merely glanced at the back seat for half a second, which was long enough for him to verify that Maria was in the back seat, head facing up, as her hair would stick out far too much, “Nice to see you guys.”

“See ya later, kid,” Tony waved off as Peter got into his car and drove off as quickly as he could without looking too suspicious.

Once they were out of range of the compound, Maria sat up in the backseat, her hair a complete wreck from lying on the ground. “I get that fighting bad guys is supposed to be a huge rush, but I can’t imagine anything cooler than breaking into my own dad’s facilities successfully,” she said, almost breathless from excitement.

“There’s only one thing stronger than Stark Technology, ” Peter acknowledged, “and that’s Stark Technology.”

Maria pulled the vibranium bead necklace out of her pocket and grinned.


	6. The Birth of an Angel

The next trick Maria had to have up her sleeve was how the heck she was gonna build this suit, let alone operate it, without her dad finding out. Her mom she could hide it from, since she wanted nothing to do with her family’s obsession with putting things together in a space that’s meant to be a garage for normal families. Meanwhile, that was her dad’s lab, his sacred sanctuary. There wasn’t anything going on in that space that he didn’t know about. It was a big trick she’d have to pull off, hence why she gave it to Andy to figure out. He was hesitant before she insisted that he was much more clever and intelligent than she was, which he knew was kiss-assery from the moment her lip pouted.

One of the easiest parts of this moving equation was that vibranium was undetectable. So moving it around and building things with it wouldn’t easily be noticed, let alone recognized, since it blended it just like any other metallic substance. Next was the consideration of a new constructing location. They thought about using the abandoned Avengers Tower before they learned that it was no longer abandoned. It’s not like they could set up shop anywhere; the amount of resources and materials they would need were absolutely insane. They would have to find another genius who could keep a secret.

That’s when Andy’s eyes grew wide. “I got it…” Maria and Peter, who were plopped on the couch, staring at the ceiling, both lifted their heads and frowned towards Andy, completely and perfectly in synch. A little creepy for Andy’s taste, but he shrugged it off. “Banner...”

Maria sniggered, “Banner?”

“Well… yeah!” Peter encouraged, “Isn’t Bruce Banner, like, the strongest AND smartest Avenger?”

“Don’t let my father catch you saying that,” Eric announced as he closed the fridge door, revealing his muscular, sweaty self with a bottle of orange juice in his flexed arm after a long workout. Peter had forgotten that Eric was even there and he began to like it that way.

After a pause, Peter continued. “Makes sense that his house would have a facility up to the same caliber as Mr. Stark has here.”

“And we all know why Andy would like to pay the Banner family a visit…” Maria’s diabolical words matched a grin that rested on Andy and his eyes refused to accept it.

“That’s not true,” Andy protested, staring at the ground.

“You’re blushing, bro,” Eric commented.

“No, I’m not.”

“Of course he is,” Maria agreed.

“What is he blushing about again?” Peter asked, slowly and cautiously raising his hand.

Maria’s look shifted from Andy to Peter, then back to Andy once again. “Ivan Banner.”

It took a moment for the pieces to come together in his head, but the moment it clicked and he opened his mouth to say something about it, Eric had already uttered the words in his body-melting accent. “Alexander  _ fancies _ the son of the Hulk.” He took the third available space on the couch beside Maria, casually throwing his arm around her, which caused her to scoot closer to him as a sort of schoolgirl-giddy-ness bubbled up inside her. 

“I do not  _ fancy _ him,” Andy mocked before rolling his eyes.

“Oh please!” Maria scoffed, “I have never once seen you stutter in your entire life until every time you get within five feet of him.”

“Again… not true.”

“You’re really into this whole denial thing, aren’t you?” Eric asked before taking a sip of juice out of the bottle.

“Yeah, that’s, like, his thing that he uses as a scare tactic sometimes,” Peter added, causing Eric to chuckle, but Peter caught that stare from Andy and looked right down at the floor in shame. Andy kind of had blackmail on him now anyway.

Andy crossed his arms to keep from showing the others that his palms were sweating as he leaned up against the counter. “Okay, you know what? You can make fun of me all you want, but the fact of the matter is that we need a lab we can work in and Ivan’s has the material we need.”

“I actually like that idea,” Maria admitted, reaching over to the coffee table to her cellular device, “Let me just ask him-.”

“Oh no, I got it,” Andy insisted, phone already in hand as his thumb starting dancing over the screen. 

Maria sat back on the couch, exchanging a look to Eric. They watched as Andy’s eyes seemed to light up with some kind of anticipation or nerves. His breathing got quicker and lighter and he seemed to type much faster than he usually would. Peter wanted to say something, but, again, was too afraid to. 

“Alright,” Andy said, surprisingly calm in contrast to the face he was making at his screen, “Looks like we get to meet him at his place after lunch.”

“He got a response rather quickly, didn’t he?” Eric observed.

“He definitely did…” Maria nodded.

Andy gave up, heading towards the stairs as he muttered. “Shut up…” A smile creeped onto his face, hoping that their observation meant way more than it was supposed to. In fact, he couldn’t get the thought out of his head. So if Ivan did respond quickly, does that mean he might like him back? Andy merely assumed that Ivan was gay as well, but had no real confirmation that this was true. That’s mostly why he stayed so quiet about the whole situation; that, and Andy Stark was never one to reveal much personal, vulnerable emotion. He was more of a caretaker than a venter when it came to any kind of intimacy whatsoever. 

During the whole ten minute drive from the Stark house to the Banner house, Andy’s hands were tense against the steering wheel. To say he was a bit worried was an understatement. Maria was all-too enthusiastic as she bopped her head and mouthed the lyrics of Hall and Oates’ “You Make My Dreams”, often turning to Andy to mock him. Eric wasn’t encouraging her much, considering he just broodishly stared out the window and had no concept of Maria’s playlist whatsoever. It was more Peter who played that part as he sat directly behind her, just as animated as she was. But that really wasn’t a surprise when it came to those two. 

“Alright, listen up,” Andy announced as he turned down the music.

“Hey!” both Maria and Peter protested.

“No! I need to make a public service announcement,” Andy scolded, “While we’re at Ivan’s house, I don’t wanna hear anything about this wild accusation you have about the two of us. We are going to look at the lab and get some actual work done, got it? He’s doing us a favor… we don’t need to bother him with all of this fiction of yours.”

Maria turned her head towards Eric and Peter, shaking her head and mouthing, “It’s not fiction.” before both males choked back any sound that would indicate laughter. She turned the stereo back up before Andy could say anything else on the matter.

The Banner house seemed to be the exact opposite of the Stark house in that it was humble and didn’t draw any kind of attention. It rested just outside the city, but was buried deep enough in the monotonous suburban neighborhood that it couldn’t stand out at all. No one would even suspect the kind of mystery and traumas that existed within the stories of the family that lived there. Maria and Eric thought it was absolutely adorable while Andy could only imagine what could be.

It was Andy who knocked on the door sharply. 

“I got it!” Came the muffled, enthusiastic voice within the house. It took only two seconds for the door to be opened to reveal the caramel skin-toned, dark-haired Ivan Banner, who stood in his small but well-built stature, his resting face of amusement the same as ever. “Hey guys.”

“Hey Ive,” Maria grinned, which made Andy a little nervous. 

Letting them into his house was almost a little too casual for Ivan Banner. In fact, he wondered why they even bothered knocking at this point. Ivan felt that way about the Stark house, at this point. They seemed to have this welcoming, open door policy at their house when it came to Ivan and his mother.

Walking in and seeing the dimly lit TV room of the Banner house was like feeling the air sucked out of your lungs. No matter how much joy Ivan and Nat tried to bring to that place, there was no denying how much things had changed within the last year and a half. Maria remembered walking into that house as a kid, running right through the front door too quickly for her parents to stop her. She would do anything to see her Uncle Bruce, and not much changed as she got older, either. It was kind of her thing to barge right in and run right into her godfather’s loving arms. And he was always waiting at the bottom of the staircase for her. 

Natasha came from the second floor anyway. Her timing wasn’t as great as Bruce’s, but Maria would accept it for now.

“Hey kids! What brings you by?” she asked as she opened her arms to take in the other redhead. 

“We were just gonna watch a couple of movies,” Ivan explained to his mother, “You know, the usual.”

“Alright, sounds good,” she announced before looking down and checking her pockets quickly. She glanced up and saw Eric, tilting her head, “And who’s this?”

“Eric,” he greeted, holding his hand out for her to shake, “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Agent Romanoff.”

Nat gave a rather impressed nod to the boy, “You’re Thor’s boy, aren’t you?”

“Indeed I am.”

“I hope Earth’s been treating you well.”

“Quite well…” 

Nat ignored the awkwardness she felt once Eric’s gaze fell to Maria, who definitely noticed it as there was a slight rush of pink in her cheeks. She walked up to Maria and whispered, “I suppose we’ve got a lot to talk about?”

Maria nodded and Nat grinned before patting her on her back. “Okay, well, I’m going into work,” she announced towards her son, “Please don’t make anything explode, and that includes the microwave popcorn.”

“That was one time…” Peter said quietly, which caused Nat to grin before messing up Peter’s hair.

After waving off his mother, Ivan waited for the door to close and then paused for a few seconds before he heard the sound of the tires of the car go off into the distance. 

“Cool,” Ivan said, clapping his hands together, “So… you guys wanna see the basement?”

“You think it’s gonna have everything we need?” Andy asked.

“Even an artificial assistant and everything,” Ivan assured them as he started towards the basement door, “If you wanna replace our chip with your own, you totally can. Just as long as we remember to put ours back after we’re done.”

“Sure thing,” Maria said, pulling the Angelo chip out of her pocket.

The five of them headed down the stairs. Turning on the light revealed a basement lab that was beyond the look of the entire house. It was vast and deep and tall, hence the extremely long walk down the stairs to reach it. It definitely was the kind of space you could keep a Hulk if you needed to, but it looked like it had been turned into a facility much more suited for Bruce over the years, only everything was covered by white sheets. The general feeling was that no one had been down here for a few years, at the last.

Ivan took the liberty of removing some of the sheets from the equipment. To Maria and Andy’s observation, everything seemed to look like it operated pretty normally despite not being in use for a while. Peter removed another sheet from one of the bots, immediately in awe as he looked up at its crane.

“Whoa…” Peter breathed, “Who built this place, Mr. Stark?”

Ivan, Andy, and Maria all exchanged a look before nodded and answering, “Yeah.”

Peter blinked twice and stared at them blankly before a look of excitement came across his face. “Awesome.”

Maria’s fingers danced across a tablet in the wall next to the door, little buttons and images appearing and disappearing as she navigated the system. With the chip she had in her hand, she clicked it into place on the side of it. After the fact, she took a few dark-colored beads and threw them onto the ground. They seemed to click into place before they could get too far apart from each other.  

“Good afternoon, Miss Stark,” Angelo announced, a plethora of holograms scattering across the room as they were projected from the beads. Ivan calmly walked towards the holograms, looking at Maria’s designs and demos.

“So this is the big project…” he mused.

Maria sucked in a deep breath before meeting him in the center of the projections. “If you’re on board with this, you gotta keep it on the DL until we can figure out some way to break it to our parents.”

“You won’t need to worry about my mom,” he eased, “She’s been mostly focused on work since…” He trailed off, looking at the ground. There were too many people around to have this kind of conversation right now, so he shook his head and cleared his throat, “and even if she does find out, she’d want this for you more than anyone else… and she’s really good at keeping secrets from your dad.”

Maria snorted. “Yeah, that sounds about right.”

Ivan’s fingers trailed along one of the holograms, expanding it to look at the inner workings of the suit, particular the vibranium components and the technology used to re-distribute the kinetic energy. He commented on how he knew this was Shuri’s suggestion, since he had taken a glimpse at her designs not too long ago. Meanwhile, Andy leaned against a wall, looking at Ivan and watching him, wanting to jump in there and say literally anything to him to get him to look at him, but holding back for fear of stealing his sister’s thunder. 

“If we wanna get started, we gotta update some of this equipment just a bit,” Ivan commented, which was when his big brown eyes met Andy’s, causing Andy to feel a jolt of electricity through his body, “Do you think you can give us a hand in that?”

Andy nodded. “Y-Yeah. Sure.”

Over Ivan’s shoulder, Andy could see the teasing glare from his sister. He never wanted to roll his eyes more.

“Alright! Let’s get to work,” Maria announced to Peter and Eric before turning back to Ivan, “You care for tunes while we work?” 

“Always,” Ivan smiled.

“Awesome. Angelo, Ivan’s here.”

“Yes, miss.”

Over the speakers, the sound of “Hey Ya!” began to play, which made Maria bop her head to the tune as Andy frowned. 

“What?” Ivan asked once he got a look at the tall, brood-ish, dark-haired man, “I’m a sucker for the early 2000’s.”

Andy would have said something much more Stark-like if his tongue didn’t twist the second Ivan started directly speaking to him, so instead his lips just released a bunch of unfinished sentences like, “Oh yeah, 2000’s… it’s cool… you know, back to our childhood… throwback thursday…” Experiencing second-hand embarrassment was another thing entirely for Maria. With her own heart racing, it caused her own palms to sweat and her own cheeks to turn red. It was more like double first-hand embarrassment. 

“Okay!” Maria said, clapping her hands together, hoping that focusing her attention elsewhere will help him calm his nerves, “Let’s get to work, shall we?”

“Hey! Since when are you in charge?” Andy asked with a frown.

“I’m the most important asset to this group,” she bragged as she approached one of the lab tables, “I’m the mitochondria.”

Peter snorted.

Eric spent most of the time sitting in the corner, watching Maria do her thing and he didn’t do much else, since there wasn’t anything he could do other than help Peter lift the heavy things. But watching her mind at work was so bewitching to him. Of course, Peter made an actual effort to be of use to her instead of standing around with his tongue hanging out, waiting for her to notice. That felt like a small win for the spiderling; at least Peter knew how to be a feminist. 

The building process was rigorous. It lasted all of two weeks, since they could only spend about one to two hours a day working on this suit without Natasha, Tony, Pepper, and May getting suspicious about why the kids locked themselves in a basement. Although May wasn’t too concerned, since she damn well knew Peter preferred to spend most of his time by Maria’s side, whatever the context may be. 

It wouldn’t be any kind of big project without Maria and Andy butting heads at some point during the process. First it was over the designs, Andy arguing that Maria’s concept is flawed, then it lead to Andy or Maria doing small things to cause each other pain just to piss off the other. It went from pinches and ended at shocking themselves with tools. Ivan didn’t want to admit that it was pretty entertaining to watch, yet it was pretty much written all over his face as he giggled and stared at the floor several times. Andy was grateful for that, though, because without it, his anger levels would definitely rise higher and higher. Ivan’s laughter was soothing to the taller Stark. Even though humor seemed to run smoother than any faucet in the Stark Mansion, it was desensitised to the point where everyone was almost numb to it or didn’t even notice it. But to hear someone else’s laughter, to hear someone else take joy in their family… now that was something truly special and Andy couldn’t ignore it. 

Finally completing the thing felt like it was too good to be true. As it rose from it’s lying down position onto its legs and stood tall before everyone, it felt to Maria like this wasn’t even real, like she didn’t even deserve to be standing here in this moment, even though every aspect of this came from her. Yet it was there in front of her; a red and silvery metal bodysuit, constructed from vibranium, kinetic energy lit up in silver, already building up within its mechanism. 

Maria started to twist her ponytail until it was a small bun on her head.

“Hold on,” Andy halted, “What do you think you’re doing?”

“What do you think I’m doing?” she said, plainly, “We gotta test drive this thing, right?”

“Now?” he asked, eyes widening, “We don’t even know if it’s safe-.”

“We get it, you’re concerned about safety,” Eric’s exasperated accent groaned, “The whole middle school safety video you keep showing us is getting old, bro.”

Andy glared at Eric and then shared a look with Maria, who wasn’t giving Andy any kind of encouragement whatsoever. 

“We won’t know it works until we try it,” Ivan suggested.

“And the spider is on duty in the city,” Eric added, “Let’s send her out there to pick up some of his slack.” That comment didn’t necessarily sit well with Maria, but she wasn’t motivated enough to say anything about it.

Still, Andy shot Maria a look. It was absolutely the link between the two of them that made her understand what he was trying to ask her.  _ Do you feel safe? _ Because, after all, isn’t that the only opinion of safety that matters?

“I’m ready,” she nodded.

Stepping up onto the platform, she took in a deep breath as she looked at the silver mask in front of her, almost seeing her own reflection in it from how clean and polished it looked. That was probably the last time it was ever going to look like that. Upon the mask reading her retinal scan, the suit opened before her, exposing the padded back support system on the inside. With a deep breath, she stepped in, facing Andy, Ivan, and Eric. Once the sensors tickled her skin, it closed around her, the darkness of the mask immediately changing as the view through the eye slits focused in to give her full vision, holograms and widgets surrounding her.

“Good evening, Miss Stark,” Angelo’s voice greeted.

“Hey Ang,” Maria greeted.

“Shall we go out for Test Drive 1?” 

“Yeah, I think that sounds adequate.”

Immediately, the repulsor rockets on her hands and legs started to ignite, pushing her gently off the ground as that sweeping feeling of floating started to come back to her body. She lunged herself forward, almost afraid of falling on her face, but the motion triggered the repulsors to rocket forward right towards the exit that was created just for this. Shooting from under the ground and out the tunnel, she sped up right into the open sky. Andy, Ivan, and Eric started to run up the stairs and out the front door, watching the comet-like figure race off towards the city. Maria let out a scream of joy and excitement as she soared through the sky for the very first time in her very own suit. 

“Initiating turn sequence,” Angelo announced, which meant the repulsors would die back a bit as Maria made a couple of sharp turns in the air, all the while, New York City just faintly in the distance in front of her.

“Looks good, Angelo,” she confirmed, “Now let’s punch it.”

“Initiating turbo sequence.”

Maria threw her legs together as they transformed into a rocket, propelling her right towards the city faster than any car could take her.

“Wooo!!!” Maria cheered, “How fast are we going, Angelo?”

“About 120 miles per hour, miss.”

“Oh, you can do better than that. Punch it to 150!”

There was no wind to feel on her face with the mask guarding her, but the rush came right along with it anyway as she heard the sound of the wind as her vibranium and steel body defied the current.

She repeated the protocol in her head. Make a safe landing in Queens, then get out of there before being noticed. It wasn’t as easy as Maria had hoped to navigate her way above the city. She could have sworn it would be just so easy, considering her best friend lives there, but when was the last time she actually went over to his place or just met him there for a sandwich? Peter was at the house so often, Maria didn’t have to go anywhere. No matter, she was able to find it after about 10 minutes of searching around the city, re-separating her legs to disengage the turbo rocket.

Maria hated to admit when she saw it, but finding Peter in Queens, swinging from building to building really was like watching an insect move around, but more like one of those big terrifying ones instead of the regular ants like the normal people walking around without a care in the world. 

Using her scanner, she found an alleyway where she was able to make a safe landing on her feet, the repulsors slowly dimming and fading out before her feet touched the ground gently. She let out a sigh of relief.

“Looks good to me,” she nodded. 

“Maria?” Andy’s voice came from either side of her head.

She heavily rolled her eyes, “You put a PA system in my suit!?”

“We put everything in your suit. You’re welcome.”

“And here I thought I would finally have some alone time in here…” she muttered.

“You’re never free of me,” Andy blurted out laughing.

Letting out a groan, Maria prepared to take off once again, but hesitated when she heard the sound of a shout coming from around the corner. She stopped her gauntlets from powering down before, as quickly as a bolt of lightning, a pale man in a green hoodie, red, and khaki pants came around the corner with a gun in his hands, dragging a homeless woman around the corner. He started yelling some things so loud that was so jumbled up that Maria hardly could make it out, but that didn’t even matter. She saw enough. The man kept yelling, making the woman cower down in fear as she stared down the barrel of the handgun. It almost baffled her that he didn’t even seem to notice the woman in a metal suit just standing there watching from a few feet away.

“Hey Robin Hood,” Maria announced, causing both of them to turn and face her.

“Maria, what are you doing?” Andy’s voice warned in her ear. She shook it off anyway.

“Idk what remake you’re in, but this one is seriously fucked up,” she sassed, holding up her gauntlets towards him. 

The man shook, dropping the homeless woman and pointing his gun to Maria.

“So… are you gonna move or do you want me to move?” she asked, “I win either way, so it’s up to you.”

The man’s fingers shook, which triggered the gun and caused three bullets to fly towards Maria in the blink of an eye. She would be lying if she said she didn’t shake a little bit at the sight and sound of being shot at, but there was no genuine fear. If Shuri knew what she was talking about, then the metal in this suit should hold and not even look scratched.

When the man ran out of ammo, Maria’s head tilted to the side. “Out of arrows?” 

The man clenched his jaw and charged towards Maria, which got her rather exciting. Striking her with the metal instrument of fear, the kinetic energy burst in the form of a gold wave, which pushed the burglar onto the pavement and made him roll over. But that didn’t stop him, which she hoped would. He just stared at her for a moment.

“Don’t engage any further!” Andy halted, which, of course, she ignored.

“Okay,” Maria sighed, immediately charging towards the burglar as he pushed himself up off the ground. He charged his hand, which was immediately stopped by Maria’s gauntlet, catching his fist like a baseball and pushed back like he was a twist tie the held the bread bag closed; effortless. He started looking towards Maria’s helmet, a serious frown on his face. “What’s the matter? Never gotten beat by a girl?” Without hesitating, took his arm down and flipped him over, catching him in her arms and shoving him against the wall with one of her gauntlets ready to fire right by his face. “Don’t. Move.” The homeless woman was scrambling to her feet, groaning from her pain as she tried to get as far away as she could. “It’s okay…” Maria assured her, “Run!” The woman obeyed and scurried away, which was exactly when the man in the red suit landed on the ground in a squat. 

“I don’t know how you think things work around here, but usually this is my job,” Spider-Man announced. 

Maria turned her head towards Peter and sighed, “It’s me, genius.”

“Oh, hey...” he hesitated to say her name in the presence of the bad-guy she currently had shoved against the wall. He was rather impressed, given that she was pretty short in comparison and she seemed to be holding him there with one hand effortlessly, “Suit looks good.”

“I know!” Maria rejoiced, “Do you mind?”

“Oh! Yeah, sure,” Peter answered before shooting webs around the burglar to keep him held in place.

“Don’t EVER do anything like that again,” Andy ordered.

“Oh my god, shut up!” Maria groaned, looking back at Peter, “You want a lift?”

“Uh…  sure!” Peter shrugged before Maria’s rockets burst into action, carrying Peter away and dropping him off on the nearest roof, “Whoa! That was awesome…” 

Maria landed on the roof into a kneeling pose before standing up. The helmet retreated and released her wavy ginger ponytail, but what was most important was the look of amazement on her face. “Did you just see that!?”

“Uh… yeah! It was so badass!”

“I know, right?”

“You can celebrate when you’re not out in public later,” Andy commanded.

“I thought that was Andy I heard…” Peter mused.

“Oooh wow! Peter has spidey-sense!” Andy’s voice said with a healthy dose of sarcasm, “Now can you actually do what I tell you to for once?”

“Go easy on her…” Ivan begged, which caused Maria’s eyes to widen as she exchanged a look with Peter, “She did a good job! She saved somebody’s life. You can give her a little credit...”

There was silence, which was typical, Maria thought.

“Fine…” Andy said in his lowest register, “Good job… now please come back?”

Maria shook her head, refusing to comment on her brother’s  _ soft side _ . Let alone that it took a whole other man for a man to accept a woman’s accomplishments, but that was an argument for another day.

* * *

The next morning, there were no TV’s on in the Stark House whatsoever. In fact, Maria and Andy both hadn’t awakened until at least 12 noon, which bothered Pepper on a regular basis just based on the fact that her children were so lazy. If only she knew exactly was making them so exhausted during the day. Today was no exception as Maria and Andy dragged themselves down the stairs after a long night of celebrating the first successful test drive of the new suit, which then resulted in test drives 2 and 3. Every single thing worked the way it was supposed to and that lead to a champagne infused evening of celebration. While it wasn’t clearly written all over their faces, a long night’s sleep was definitely what they were sporting; Maria with her hair down as a tangled mess in her gray tank top and blue sweatpants, Andy with his black hair completely standing up as he rubbed his eyes in his red t-shirt and plaid pajama pants.

“You two look disgusting,” Pepper scolded.

“Thanks, mom,” they both said monotonously. Maria opened the fridge, pulling out a bottle of orange juice and a carton of milk as Andy reached up into the cabinets for a loaf of white bread and a box of Lucky Charms cereal.

“When did you even get home last night?” the concerned mother asked, who was already in her full makeup and business attire as she stopped working in her home office for a moment to cook her own lunch.

“Pretty late…” Andy explained, stretching out his arms while Maria poured them both glasses of orange juice, “It was just us and Eric and Ivan and Pete watching movies all night, eating popcorn, you know how it is.”

“Well you look like you just completed a triathlon.”

Meanwhile, Eric walked in the back door from the yard by the lake after a morning run and workout, his hair looking a bit damp as sweat glistened on his chiseled, bare chest. Maria practically spit out her orange juice as she scrambled about, attempting to hide behind her large older brother. “Afternoon, all,” Eric greeted as he grabbed a glass and started to pour himself a cup of water, “It’s a beautiful day outside today. We really should be enjoying it.”

“That is a fantastic idea, Eric!” Pepper encouraged, shooting a look to her children, “What better way to make up for a day in bed till noon than going outside and enjoying the Summer’s day!”

“Mom…” Maria said, throwing her face in her hands as she shook her head.

“Well I’m going to get the rest of my work done on the terrace overlooking the lake… you are welcome to join me if you’d like.”

“I’d like to wash up before I sit outside again,” Eric announced before walking back up the stairs.

Maria glanced after him, watching his muscles move and flex and glisten, and just as she began to bite on her bottom lip, Andy shivered as he felt his own heartbeat quicken. “Ugh. This is  _ by far _ the worst part of sharing a heart with you,” he gagged before chugging down orange juice. 

“Don’t act like you don’t agree with me,” she muttered, “Or are you only attracted to pure Chileans with sunny dispositions?”  
“Okay!” Pepper halted, picking up her plate with a fully made salad on it, “I am going to the terrace!” Watching Andy come into his own in terms of his own sexuality was not the problem for Pepper, as a mother. She had the same problem with Maria as well, and that’s the openly lusting after people in plain sight. Pepper preferred not to know anything about the sexual desires of her children. 

Maria sighed as she took her bowl of cereal and cup of orange juice and sat on the couch, waiting for her mother to close the sliding door to the terrace. “Have you seen anything yet?”  
Andy shook his head, “Nope. I’ve hardly checked my phone this morning.”

“I’m gonna turn on channel six,” she said with hushed excitement as she practically jumped on the couch while her foot rested on the coffee table, “Come on, come on.” She patted the spot on the couch next to her.

“Would you let me butter my toast, please?”

Maria couldn’t actually wait. She was practically shaking in her skin, waiting to see some kind of reaction from the public as to what happened the previous night. She had saved someone’s life. She wanted that public, she wanted people to know about that because then that meant Maria Stark was powerful. Well… technically people wouldn’t  _ know _ that, but it was validation. It was some form of validation that her dream wasn’t completely stupid, that all of this complaining was actually about something real. So when Andy finally sat down and got himself comfortable, which he purposefully took his sweet time doing, Maria already had the remote in hand and immediately flipped it to channel 6 where they saw nothing but the usual late night shootings and robberies. Maria was beginning to feel her heart drop the longer they waited, watching. But that didn’t mean she left the edge of her seat for one second, holding out hope that, at any given second, it was gonna happen. 

“And from Queens,” the reporter said, causing Maria’s hand to grab onto Andy’s shirt tightly as her eyes were glued to the screen, “Last night, a man was spotted mugging a homeless victim in the street. She was then pulled into an alleyway where she was held at gunpoint. We caught up with the woman in her shelter to hear more about the altercation.”

The image on the screen cut to the same woman that Maria recognized from the previous evening.

“That’s her!” Maria shouted, “That’s the one!”

“Shhhhh!!!!” Andy hushed.

“I saved her life…” Maria whispered.

A microphone was held up to the homeless woman’s face as she began to speak, quite cautiously, “I-I was pulled into an alleyway and the first thing I thought was… nobody can see me… nobody’s gonna find me… but someone did. She was in metal suit and she saved my life… you know… in a world full of superheroes… it’s nice to know that there is at least one guardian angel looking out for me…”

“Well, there you have it,” the reporter continued, “The mugger was apprehended when found in an elaborate and extremely durable webbing, which can only mean one thing, Queen’s very own Spider-Man made an appearance at the scene, which could indicate that we have another mysterious superhero on our hands. But for now, we thank the guardian angel for her brave work thus far.”

Maria immediately turned off the TV, the blankness of the screen reflecting her jaw almost hitting the floor. Andy slowly turned his head to face Maria, prepared to cover his ears, to be jolted around, to get up and celebrate with her. But instead, she took in a very deep breath, let it out, and then grinned.

“I know what to call her…” she glanced to Andy, more confident than she ever had been before as she uttered the words for the very first time, “The Iron Angel…” 


End file.
